


Flower Boy Bake Shop

by feminabeata



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: F/M, Food Critic, boys and cakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 18:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 41,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4574760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feminabeata/pseuds/feminabeata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Welcome to Flower Boy Bake Shop! A bakery that stands out from the rest not because of any speciality or original desserts, but because of their handsome waiters and their 'special service.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Tier

**Author's Note:**

> After I finish my OC fics on AFF, I've decided to move them here. The formatting is so much better on this site (AO3 for life!). 
> 
> I wrote this a long time ago, and it's my first completed fanfic (also trigger warning! I mention something that some may be uncomfortable with, a food related disorder).

“Is this guy your boyfriend?” a man with pitch-black eyes  asked a woman seated at  a small round table, sitting right across from a man with thick eye brows who looked thoroughly amused.

The woman fidgeted with the menu in front of her and shot a nasty glare at the man across from her. “Nope. Not at all,” she answered with a dry tone. “We’re just coworkers.”

“Good,” the man with dark eyes responded with a crooked smile. “He’s not good enough for a beautiful woman like yourself.” The woman could not help but to be slightly taken aback by the man’s forwardness. It didn’t help that he was possibly the most attractive man that she had ever laid eyes on. It was like a female Pygmalion had sculpted out her ideal form of a man out of marble, and the statue had sprung to life; it was unnatural. Blush crept up to the surface of the woman’s cheeks, and she tried hard to hide her new redness with the menu.

The man with thick eyebrows scoffed and stuck his tongue in his cheek, trying hard to hold back some rude, snarky comment. But his eyes spoke volumes as they rolled about in his skull. Her companion’s reaction recalled the woman back to her original purpose. She scoffed as well, slightly ashamed that she had stumbled (not entirely fallen) for the dark eyed man’s charm. “Do you hit on all of your customers? Or am I that irresistible?” she cheekily asked.

The crooked smile fell from the handsome server’s face, and he stared at her blankly like he was rebooting his brain. After a few moments of awkward silence, he finally asked, “Do you not like it? It’s the normal service we offer here.”

“No, I don’t like it. Now can we just put in our orders and can you treat us like average customers without your ‘special service’?” she pleaded as she handed the server her menu.

“O-of course,” the server stuttered, taken aback by the woman. “What will it be, princess?” The woman glared at him. “Uh, I mean, miss,” he quickly corrected himself as he drew out a pad of paper from his pocket and a small pencil.

“Tell your chef that the reviewer is here, let him choose what we eat, and I also want to interview him, so tell him that as well,” she quickly ordered In a curt tone. She didn’t mean to come off as rude as she did, but there was something about this place that put her in a sour mood. She couldn’t entirely blame the server because he was only doing his job, doing what he was told. The majority of the fault lied on the owner who was the mastermind behind this uniquely irritating bakery, the owner whom the woman was about to meet in a few short moments, whom she already hated for manipulating women’s malleable hearts for profit.

The handsome server politely bowed and left, making his way into the kitchen in order to deliver her message to the chef. Once the server was out of earshot, the woman’s coworker chuckled as he read the sign painted on the window next to their table, “Flower Boy Bake Shop.” He turned to his coworker and smiled teasingly. “Did you volunteer for this assignment, Tokki? Jumping at the chance to have boys who look like they belong in an idol band serve you cakes? I saw how you reacted to the server’s flirting. You liked it.”

The woman rubbed her face roughly with her hands in frustration. “This is what I get for being the only female food critic on staff,” she mumbled. “And don’t call me Tokki out here, _Hoya_ ,” she countered his ‘pet name’ with one of her own. Her coworker immediately frowned, not liking when someone called him by that name in public. “We’re on assignment. I need to retain some semblance of professionalism out here.”

Of course, Tokki was not her real name; it was Choi Bonnie, and she was a food critic of the city’s major newspaper. She had worked there for three years already and had received acclamations for several of her articles and a few pats on the back from her boss (earning her another nickname: the boss’s pet). From the beginning of her career, she formed a close bond with her fellow coworker, the one who first called her ‘Tokki,’ the one whom she teasingly called ‘Hoya’ for his unexpected gentle side and his love of purple, Lee Howon.  They had entered the newspaper on the same day and found themselves naturally drawn to each other because of it. Howon was a sports reporter, and his cubicle was right next to her own. They would eat lunch together most days, sharing their worries and complaints, and on particularly slow days they would exchange snarky remarks with each other by crumpling up a piece of paper and throwing it over their shared wall.

Her new assignment, her new dreadful assignment, was to review the new bakery in town that was quickly becoming a trend. However their fame was not based on a reputation for delicious pastries and breads. They were famous for their handsome servers who looked like they were princes that just jumped out of the pages of a fairy tale. But the ‘special service’ the place offered wasn’t having handsome princes serve you cakes; it was having those princes act like your boyfriend for your entire stay at the bakery. They would flatter their customers praising their beauty, take any opportunity for skinship, and upon request they would even feed the customers dessert. And so it became a Mecca for teenagers and single young women, who would return to the bakery day after day to see their ‘boyfriends.’ Bonnie found the entire thing disgusting and unrespectable. To her, the bakery was a scheme preying on the loneliness and desperation of women. A bakery should become successful based on the quality of their goods, not based on some ridiculous ploys playing with people’s hearts.

“Correction. You’re on assignment,” Howon clarified. “I’m just here for free food.”

Bonnie felt guilty. She had dragged Howon here without telling them where they were going; she had only promised that there would be free food, and so he jumped at the chance (he would often beg her to let him tag along on some of her other assignments in upscale restaurants, but she insisted that he would be a distraction). Bonnie was sure that if she told him where they were going, Howon would have ran in the opposite direction. She was delightfully surprised that he hadn’t yet tried to escape the girly bakery; he must have really wanted the free meal. Bonnie reached out and patted his hand which was lying on the table. “Anyway, thanks for coming,” she said with a smile. “I could really use a guy’s opinion on this place, and God knows that male patrons are scarce here.”

Howon looked around with his judging eyes. “Well, I am the only guy here who’s not working. Although I’m not sure about that guy,” he said pointing at a man in an apron with a sharp features but large lips. “He doesn’t seem to meet the idol-like standard here. He’s a bit on the short side.”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. “You’re just mad because if you applied here, you would be rejected immediately. That guy is twice as handsome as you are. And what are you, one centimeter taller than him?” she needled him.

“I could work here if I wanted,” he argued with a frown, his competitive nature seeping out. “I’m more than handsome enough. And I can say cheesy things too.” He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Princess…” he started, but he ended snorting, unable to follow through with his lip-service.

Bonnie tore her hand away from his grasp. “Right. Just do us all a favor and stick to your day job, Hoya.”

Hoya smirked. “I got you to blush though _, Tokki_ ,” he said triumphantly.

Bonnie’s hands raced to her cheeks, and sure enough, they were hot to the touch. “I’m not blushing because of you,” she tried to defend herself. “It residual blush from the server before!”

“Oh, if you liked Myungsoo so much, I could get him to serve you again,” a voice came from her side. Bonnie and Howon turned and were face by a man with large, closed-lip smile, carrying a whicker tray laden with baked goods. “But I thought you would prefer to be served by the chef himself. Trust me. It’s an honor. I don’t do this for just anyone,” he ended with a deep chuckle and wink. He placed the large tray on the small table, leaving no spare room for the reporters to even rest their elbows. Then the chef grabbed Bonnie’s hand with both of his. “Nam Woohyun. It’s a pleasure to meet you, princess.”

Bonnie grounded her teeth together. She hated being called ‘princess’ by the server, but she loathed being called it by the chef. The lilt in his deep voice sounded tainted; it came so naturally he had to have said it several times before. Bonnie unclenched her teeth and smiled. “I’m no princess. I’m just Choi Bonnie,” she politely responded, gently moving her hands out of his.

“That’s right. She’s not a princess. She’s a tokki,” Howon joked under his breath, so quiet only Bonnie could hear (which earned him a swift kick to the shin under the table). Then he stood up and shook Woohyun’s hand. “Lee Howon,” he introduced himself. “I’m a sports reporter at the same newspaper as Bonnie-ssi.”

“Oh, Howon-ssi! I’m familiar with your work,” Woohyun said with such enthusiasm as if he was meeting his favorite celebrity. “I loved your last article about the baseball game. The coach would be smart if he took your suggestion and switched pitchers.”

“Really?” Howon responded utterly pleased.

Bonnie cleared her throat, eager to return back to business and get it over with. “So what did you bring?” she asked.

Woohyun rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke and gestured to the tray, “As you can see, I didn’t know what to bring. So I just brought you one of everything.”

Bonnie gnawed on the bottom of her lip as she surveyed the tray. Her thoughts ran a mile a minute, and her stomach grew heavy as stared at the mountain of pastries and breads in front of her. “You don’t need to try everything, if you don’t want to,” the chef urged her.

Bonnie felt a little irritated that he could read her worries so easily. “No, it’s okay. I want to write a thorough review. This would help. Besides, I brought Hoya here to help me,” she reassured him, her coworker’s nickname accidentally slipping past her lips. Howon growled a little and frowned.

“Hoya?” Woohyun was confused, and his eyes darted back and forth between Howon and Bonnie. Then a smile broke on his face. “Oh! I get it! You two are dating. Don’t worry. I won’t tell your boss,” he teased.

Howon laughed and raised his hand, showing off a thick golden band on his ring finger. “I’m actually married, unlike this loner,” he joked gesturing towards Bonnie. “Besides Tokki is about as feminine as you and me. I’d have an affair with that server,” he said pointing to a long-haired server with large, sparkling eyes, “before Tokki.” Bonnie hit Howon sharply on the head with her pencil. “See what I mean!” Howon defended himself, rubbing his new sore spot.

“Tokki?” Woohyun asked scrunching his nose.

“Yea, this wise guy brilliantly discovered that Bonnie sounded like bunny,” Bonnie explained as she jotted a few things down in her notebook, picking at the foods. “Him and every single one of my grade school classmates.”

“I like it!” Woohyun announced as he drew a chair from a nearby table and sat with them. “It suits you.” Bonnie looked up at him skeptically. She doubted that the chef could make an assessment like that having only known her for a grand total of five minutes. She shook her head and returned to taking her notes. Then she heard Woohyun chuckle. “You know, you _can_ eat those.”

Bonnie put down her pencil and picked up a spoon. “Sometimes the presentation is just as important as the taste, especially at a boutique bakery such as this. People like to eat pretty things,” she explained as sliced into a strawberry shortcake with her spoon and took a bite. Then Bonnie proceeded to take notes on what she had just eaten. She gestured to Howon that he could help himself to the rest of the strawberry dessert.

“People like to look at pretty things too. That’s why—whoa! Wait, that’s all you’re eating of that,” he objected as he noticed the silent interaction between the coworkers. He took the dessert from Howon who grumbled like a child having had his sweet taken away. “You barely got any of the strawberries or the cream,” he argued as he portioned out a large bite onto his spoon. He then pushed the spoon against her tightly shut lips. Bonnie looked at him with wide eyes hardly believing the audacity of the chef. She took offense as he insinuated that she didn’t know how to do her job properly. Woohyun did not notice her distress and pouted. “Please. Just take another bite. Tokki-ssi, aaaaaaaah,” he begged her to open her mouth with baby-talk. Astounded, Bonnie did so, and Woohyun pushed the food forcefully into her mouth. He smiled widely, this time showing his teeth, but something seemed odd about the smile to Bonnie as she carefully chewed and swallowed the dessert. The smile wasn’t entirely natural; there was something practiced about it.

Howon snorted and laughed as he watched his coworker crumble under the chef’s aegyo. He then took the rest of the strawberry shortcake and cheerfully ate it. “Not bad,” he praised with his mouth still full of food.

“Thank you,” Woohyun responded with his practiced smile again. He turned to Bonnie expecting some words of praise from her as well, but she was busing herself with a cheesecake. “So I heard that you wanted an interview with me as well.”

Bonnie nodded, swallowing the last bits of the chocolate drizzled cheesecake before handing the plate to Howon. “How many customers do you normally get? Is it always this crowded?”

“Please don’t call them our customers. They’re our girlfriends,” he quickly insisted. Bonnie shot a glance over to Howon who raised his hands in the air and shrugged his shoulders. Woohyun didn’t even seem to notice and continued to answer the question, “And it’s usually like this after school lets out. That’s our busiest time. It normally dies down around dinner time. But when the schools are on break, we’re packed like this for the whole day.”

“How did you get the idea for a bakery like this? It’s…unique,” Bonnie ended, struggling to find the right word to describe this place.

Woohyun chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s hardly an original idea,” he admitted. “They’ve had places like this in Japan for years, but my cousin had the idea after watching the drama ‘Flower Boy Ramyun Shop.’ But I guess for the area, yes it’s unique.” Bonnie was surprised by this level of honesty coming from a man who insisted on calling his customers his girlfriends. “But I like to think that it’s my excellent baking skills that help us to stand out,” he remarked. With that, Bonnie returned to being wary of the chef, especially after tasting his desserts.

“You don’t taste any of your desserts, do you?” Bonnie suddenly asked, inspecting the red velvet cake on her spoon before placing it in her mouth.

Woohyun rubbed his upper arms with his hands subconsciously and was shocked. “H-how did you know?” he asked. Bonnie watched him as he rubbed his biceps. She could see his carefully toned muscles through his thin cardigan. She looked at his neckline, her eyes falling on his protruding collar bones. Any man who took care of his appearance as meticulously as he probably did, would not risk masking his hard earned muscles with a layer of fat that his desserts would give.

Bonnie put down her spoon. “It tastes like you follow a recipe blindly,” she said finally putting words to the average tastes of his food. There was nothing special about them at all.

“Not blindly…accurately,” he mumbled disgruntledly but there was still a trace of a smile on his face.

Bonnie wrote a few lines into her notebook as a heavy silence oppressed the table. Howon looked uncomfortable as his eyes darted back and forth between the writer and the baker (but that still didn’t stop him from shoveling the rest of the red velvet cake into his mouth). Then Bonnie looked up from her notes. “How were you trained?” she asked as she tore a piece from a croissant, tasting it carefully.

“When I was younger, my aunt taught me, but recently I’ve been teaching myself. I know that I’m far from perfect…” he confessed. Bonnie’s pencil stilled, once again tripped up by his unexpected modesty. “But I’m getting close,” he ended with a wink. Bonnie sighed and continued writing. Every time the chef had made an humble comment, he would immediately undercut it with his brash arrogance.

“What about your servers? What’s your hiring process like?” she asked as she handed several breads that she just sampled to Howon. Howon took in a deep breath, bracing himself. He was starting to feel full, but he wasn’t so willing to pass up the opportunity for free food. After giving his pregnant belly a few rubs, he began tucking into the small loaves of bread in front of him.

Woohyun wiggled his black eyebrows, barely visible under his long bangs. “Do you want to meet them?”

“Um, that won’t be—“ Bonnie began, but her words were cut off.

The chef gave them a signal, and the four servers quickly gathered around the already crowded table. “You’ve already met Myungsoo. He’s our manwha prince,” Woohyun introduced the dark-eyed server who gave his crooked smile as he bowed. Woohyun then gestured towards the server with the sharp jaw-line. “This is Dongwoo. He’s our sweet, attentive prince.” The server’s features softened into a warm, toothy grin as he politely bowed. “And this is Sungjong, our cute prince. Go ahead. Do the cutie player,” Woohyun demanded of the long-haired, doe-eyed server. And before Bonnie could object. Sungjong proceeded to perform the cutie player not only to 6, but up to 10. Bonnie could sense the judging stares from Howon as he loudly chewed on a baguette. And she could no longer keep her blushing under control; her palms grew sweaty. After Sungjong had finished, Bonnie unconsciously clapped, but quickly caught herself and stopped. Woohyun looked over at the writer, pleased. He subtly gave Sungjong a ‘thumbs up’ for charming her. The chef’s smile was significantly larger as he introduced the last server, “Finally, this is Sungyeol, our…” Woohyun’s face fell as he cocked his head. “What prince are you?”

Sungyeol’s hair was unfortunately a wiry mess, and large plastic frames covered half of his face. He was obviously the black sheep of the group, even Woohyun seemed to acknowledge it by not remembering what role Sungyeol was responsible for. Sungyeol’s face was stiff as he responded, “I’m the smart prince.” His bow was as stiff and awkward as his facial expression was.

“Nice to meet all of you,” Bonnie waved and smiled at all of them. Her smile widened when she made eye contact with Sungyeol, hoping to raise his spirits, but his rigid lips just merely twitched upwards and he almost dropped the pencil that he was twirling nervously in his hand.

Woohyun turned to his waiters. “Okay guys. You should probably get back to work,” he gently suggested, and the four dispersed, returning back to their ‘girlfriends.’

“What prince are you?” Howon asked, wiping crumbs from his mouth.

“Me?” Woohyun asked with a shocked voice, pointing to himself. “I’m not a prince…I’m the king,” he ended with a chuckle. Bonnie fought hard not to roll her eyes. She was a professional and had dealt with chefs more arrogant and full of themselves than Woohyun. But then why was this particular chef irking her so much?

Woohyun turned to Howon. “If you ever want to take a break from writing, we could really use a sporty prince,” he suggested.

Howon hung his head, trying to hide him smile; he was obviously flattered by the suggestion. “Nah. That’s okay. I don’t think my wife would like it if I worked here,” he politely refused.

Bonnie sighed and looked at her watch. She had to return home if she wanted to meet her deadline for the article. “Woohyun-ssi,” she called to the chef as she began to gather her things. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have a deadline to meet. Thank you so much for your time. It was…nice meeting you.”

Woohyun frowned. “So soon?” he asked. He looked down at the tray. Without him knowing, she had sampled each and every baked good on it. He had never intended for her to try all of it, just to pick out a few she thought looked most desirable. She was right in telling him that she wanted to be thorough.

He stood up from his own chair and quickly grabbed her coat from off of the hook. Bonnie halted, shooting him a confused look. Woohyun had wanted to help her put on her coat, but after seeing her look at him as if she thought that he wanted to steal her pink peacoat, he relented and just rested the coat on her shoulders. “It was nice meeting you too, Tokki-ssi. And you too Howon-ssi. Please come again,” he bid farewell with a warm smile.

“The article should be out tomorrow,” Bonnie informed him. “Goodbye,” she waved as she stepped outside the bakery with her coworker.

After walking a few step away from the shop, Howon broke the silence, “Are you normally that much of a hard-ass during interviews?”

Bonnie frowned. She was normally a friendly girl, but there was something about Nam Woohyun that rubbed her the wrong way, that drudged up memories of her past. She had known people like him, the charmers. She hated them. Turning towards her coworker, she answered, “If you mean professional, then yes. Yes, I am.” Howon glared at her. “Okay, I was a bit harsher,” she admitted. “But did you see the way he practically ignored my last question?”

“I think that he was a little excited,” Hoya guessed. “He seems like one of the types to plan elaborate things. I mean, just look at the one server’s cutie player. That was all planned.”

Bonnie nodded, her head whirring with her thoughts of the shop. “Everything was planned,” she repeated to herself. “It's as if they were following a script. Did you notice how the first server and Woohyun-ssi called me princess? I bet he makes them call all the customers that.”

Howon let out a fake gasp. “You mean ‘girlfriends,’ “ he corrected. Then he shook his head. “It’s like a host club.”

“But take away all the razzmatazz, and all you’re left with is mediocre desserts,” she concluded.

* * *

Bonnie was stretching in front of her laptop screen. She had less than an hour before she had to send in her article. Night had fallen hours ago. The only light that shone for blocks in her neighborhood was her small desk lamp. Bonnie had always felt more productive at night, especially with the pressure of deadline quickly closing in on her. But this article had been surprisingly easy to write. She took a swig from her energy drink before continuing.

She read out loud as she wrote (thinking it would help her catch mistakes more easily): “In short, Flower Boy Bake Shop is a charming facade with no substance. The baked goods are beautifully presented, but the taste falls short of their appearance. The servers are handsome princes, wooing their ‘princesses’ with lines from a well rehearsed script. Then there’s the owner with the disingenuous smile, insisting that his sweets and breads are what draws in the crowd of fanatical girls, not the idol-like men he hired. If you want to eat baked goods in this city’s equivalent to a host club, then Flower Boy Bake Shop is the place for you. However, if you desire high-quality and inventive desserts, you should look elsewhere.”

“Aaaand finished!” Bonnie announced as she sent the article to her editor. She smirked, and got up from her chair with a great big yawn. She looked at her still opened laptop with the sense of a job well done, but then she felt a pang of guilt. “Sorry Nam Woohyun-ssi.”


	2. The Second Tier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie gets gets in trouble

Nam  Woohyun was intrigued. That kind of feeling hadn’t happened to him in a while. Lately, his life had been routine: waking up before sunrise, baking until the sun shone, filling out special orders, sometimes emerging from the kitchen and giving his girlfriends ‘special service,’ and then he went to bed (sometimes even before the sun had set). Outside of the people in the bakery, Woohyun hardly saw anyone else. He went for long periods of time when he never stepped foot outside the bakery (he lived in the apartment above his shop). There was hardly anything exciting or unusual about his days lately, until yesterday, and it left him perplexed.

He had expected a critic from a major newspaper to come in and review his food and had also expected it to be a woman, given the nature of his shop. He didn’t expect the critic to come with his favorite sports writer and to look the way she did. There wasn’t much diversity in his part of the city, so this half-Korean food critic had caught his eye. Her eyes were a light brown with flecks of green; her long hair cascading over her shoulders in waves looked dark brown at first, but when the light hit it in a certain way, it shone brilliant red. Yet in spite of her mixed heritage, her skin was as white and clear as fresh fallen snow.

However more intriguing than all of that was the way she reacted to him. She seemed to enjoy and yet be utterly repulsed by his actions at the same time. Woohyun was used to having a few unwilling customers dragged into the shop by some of his more fanatic ‘girlfriends,’ but those people would consistently reject his and his servers’ ‘service.’ Choi Bonnie, on the other hand, reacted so inconsistently that he didn’t know what to do. Did she like him? Did she hate him? Or had she not made up her mind yet? If it was the last one, that irritated Woohyun the most. Woohyun could live with people disliking or even hating him (grudgingly), but those people teetering on the edge of like and dislike, he could not stand. He would feel this incessant  urge, wanting desperately to win them over, and he only felt more crestfallen when they had finally decided to hate him despite his efforts.

“Which one will it be, Tokki-ssi?” he muttered under his breath as he kneaded the dough in front of him.

“Nam-goon!” A voice called out to him. Footsteps thumped down the stairwell from the apartment upstairs. Woohyun didn’t need to see who the voice belonged to in order to know who it was; he was already very familiar with that gentle yet excited cadence.

“Dongwoo-hyung, I’m in the kitchen,” Woohyun announced, now taking the dough in his hands and methodically throwing it on the countertop.

The kitchen’s swinging doors burst wide open and a breathless Dongwoo emerged. “The review…it’s out,” he said in between pants. Woohyun looked at his hand and sure enough, Dongwoo was clutching a newspaper in his hands tightly, his knuckles turning white. Dongwoo then walked over to the baker’s side and placed the newspaper on the countertop. “I hadn’t read it yet,” he admitted. “I didn’t think it would be right to read without you and Myungsoo.”

“Soo is still asleep,” Woohyun stated as he picked up the paper and flipped it to the food section. “I don’t think he would mind, if we took a peek.”

“Are you sure? He hates being excluded from things,” Dongwoo debated with Woohyun verbally but the older man was already peeking over the baker’s shoulders,  trying to catch a glimpse of the print.

“Well, then that’s what he gets for being a lazy ass and sleeping in,” Woohyun joked as he searched the pages for his review. When he found it, the both of them read it silently. Not even a breath passed their lips until they had finished reading the review.

Woohyun sighed and threw the paper on the table with his head hanging. Dongwoo was hugging his back, resting his chin on his shoulder, in an effort to comfort him. _Well, I guess Tokki-ssi decided on hate_ , Woohyun’s mind concluded.

* * *

“Hey, Tokki!” Bonnie looked up and saw Howon poking his head over their shared wall. “Nice article, but I expect to get some credit for the ‘host club’ comment. I came up with that, you little plagiarist.”

“Fine,” Bonnie gave in and took the newspaper from Howon grasp and jotted something in the margins before handing it back.

Howon took back the newspaper and read it out loud, “Article by Choi Bonnie, sass provided by Lee Howon.” He put down the paper and smirked. “Good, now just do that for the thousand or so other newspapers, and I won’t sue.”

Bonnie just smiled at his weak threat. “We both know that you’re not going to sue.  I’m pretty sure your wife would divorce you if you did. She loves me more than you.”

“I doubt that,” Howon scoffed. “You may be her sister, but I’m her husband. I can do things for her that you cannot.”

Bonnie immediately covered her ears and started humming loudly. “Dear God! I don’t want to hear about your sex life with my little sister!” she whined. She looked up at Howon who was silently and maniacally chuckling above her head. He all the sudden reminded her of one of those cartoon devils, whispering nefarious things into someone’s ear. Bonnie pulled the fingers out of her ears. “I regret setting you up with Aine every day.”

Howon hit her on the top of her head lightly with the rolled up newspaper. “I was talking about opening up jars and other manly things. You’re the one who made it dirty,” he chided. Then he rested his chin on the top of the wall and smiled. “Did I ever thank you for forcing me into that blind date?”

Bonnie smiled contently. “Every day,” she softly responded. She would never tell Howon lest it would inflate his already puffed up ego, but she honestly enjoyed having him as a brother-in-law. He turned out to be the teasing but good-natured brother that she had always wanted. He also made her little sister happier than she’d ever been in her life with each passing day. _And to imagine that if I hadn’t practically blackmailed Hoya into that date, none of this would have ever happened_ , she said to herself.

Bonnie saw Howon ducking his head back down, returning to his work. She let out a big sigh. She was truly happy for Howon and Aine, but every time Bonnie saw Howon practically have hearts sprouting out of his eyes when he talked about her little sister, it was a grim reminder that she was still single. And from the looks of her current lifestyle (being practically married to her work) and from the men she had been meeting lately (like that flirtatious, womanizing baker Nam Woohyun), her single status wasn’t going to change anytime soon. But she still held out hope for one man, her forbidden office crush.

“Oh by the way,” Howon spoke out again, his head hanging over the wall like a vulture. “The boss is back from vacation. And I think that he misses his little pet rabbit.” Bonnie blushed. She had read the memo too about their boss’s return, and it sent her heart aflutter. Of course, Howon being the observant little bastard he was, knew full well of Bonnie’s penchant for their boss and teased her about it every time he possibly could.

“Don’t say that, Hoya,” Bonnie said quietly, pretending to be typing something into her computer (although she hadn’t received her new assignment yet). “I’m pretty sure Sungkyu-ssi didn’t even think about me for a second.”

Howon smirked and looked across the room. Then he gasped. “If that’s true, then why is he coming over right now?”

Bonnie jumped up and peered over her cubicle walls. There was no one. She turned around and saw Howon smiling wolfishly and silently giggling. “Haha very funny,” Bonnie said dryly.  “You got me. I don’t know why I believed you. No one ever comes into this corner of the office except the errand-boys. We never get any visitors.”

“Oh, then what am I?” a familiar voice came from her side. Bonnie cringed, and Howon smirked amusedly. It was Nam Woohyun, clutching a newspaper in his hand, opened straight to the page of his review. “I guess maybe I’m technically not a visitor because I’m here on business. I’m a complainer. I’m here to lodge a complaint,” he announced with that practiced smile of his.

“Woohyun-ssi,” Bonnie started, standing from her chair. Howon returned back to his work to give them privacy. “Is there a problem with the article?” Bonnie asked but then she winced. Of course there was a problem. She basically attacked his character and exposed him and his bakery for what it truly was, “a charming facade with no substance” to quote herself directly.

Woohyun leaned against the cubicle wall, crossing his arms. “Well, it’s your opinion so there’s not much that I can do about that,” he said staring at the ground, but then he looked up and pouted sadly. “But do you really think that I have a ‘disingenuous smile’? Or—“

“Yes,” Bonnie said honestly. Then she saw the hurt in Woohyun’s eyes, and it made her feel guilty. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “It was just a feeling I got when I saw it.”

“Which smile was it?” he asked with all sincerity.

“Huh?”

“Which smile? Was it this one?” He showed her his tight-lipped smile. “Or this one?” He smiled widely exposing only his top row of teeth. “Or this?” This time he smiled with his mouth hanging open, resembling a bit of a fool.

“Huh…I,” Bonnie was stuttering as she watched the baker showed her a series of smiles. She was wondering how one person could have so many different expressions (the one where he smirked and bit his bottom lip had especially taken her aback), but every expression seemed to prove her original sentiment. They all seemed practice and rehearsed in front of a mirror. “I don’t know. All of them?” she tried to make definitive statement, but it came out more as a question.

Woohyun’s face fell. “A-all of them,” he whimpered.

All of the sudden a crumpled piece of paper flew over the wall of the cubicle and hit Bonnie in the head. It was a note from Howon. Bonnie smoothed it out and read it to herself:

**_  Tokki, _ **

**_ Stop flirting. The boss is coming this way. This time I’m not joking. _ **

**_ -Hoya _ **

**_ P.S. On second thought, keep flirting. It might make Sungkyu-ssi jealous to see someone else playing with his pet. _ **

“Um,” Bonnie began after finishing the note and putting it in her pocket. She looked up and saw Woohyun trying to slyly catch a peek at the note. “Maybe you should leave. I’ll work on a apology in my next article, and I’ll send you a fruit basket. A very nice fruit basket,” she promised as she forcefully ushered him out of her cubicle.

“B-but my smile,” he whined, trying to grip on the walls of her cubicle to stay his ground. Bonnie consequently gave him a harder push, causing Woohyun to collide with the man right outside of her cubicle opening, Kim Sungkyu. Bonnie hid her increasingly reddening face behind her hands and began to open her mouth so that she could profusely apologize, but before she could do so, one word slipped from Woohyun’s mouth that shut her up, “Hyung!”

Sungkyu facial expression immediately morphed from one of annoyance to a warm, friendly one. “Woohyunnie?” he said in surprise. “What are you doing here? Did you miss your hyung?”

“Nope,” Woohyun plainly stated putting his hands in his pocket. Sungkyu looked a little saddened by that statement, which made Woohyun giggle in delight. “I came here to talk to one of your writers. She didn’t write a very nice article about me,” he said with an expression of a hurt puppy.

Sungkyu walked up to him and stroked him under the chin. “Who was it? I’ll fire them right now,” the editor said in all seriousness. Woohyun deepened his pout and pointed over to a surprised and stunned Bonnie. “Bonnie-ssi? You?” Sungkyu asked in disbelief noticing the woman for the first time since he approached her cubicle. Bonnie just nodded, utterly confused at the two’s relationship. Sungkyu turned to Woohyun and shrugged. “Sorry, Hyunnie, I can’t fire her. She’s one of our paper’s best reviewers. She always write her honest opinion and that’s what I like about her.” Bonnie couldn’t hide her smile at her boss defending her from her new rival (both of them now vying for Sungkyu’s favor).

“But hyung…” Woohyun whined, trying to win over his hyung with every cute weapon in his arsenal (Bonnie tried to take note of it, seeing how easily Sungkyu gives into Woohyun’s whims).

“Fine, let me see the article. I haven’t been able to read it yet because I was on vacation,” Sungkyu gave in. He turned again to Bonnie. “Bonnie-ssi, meet me in my office with the article.” After ordering her, he turned on his heels and left (not before patting Woohyun on the head).

Bonnie turned to Woohyun and didn’t know whether to slap him for trying to get her fired or to hug him  for giving her private time with her crush. But after looking at Woohyun smiling triumphantly at her, she decided on hitting him on the butt with her newspaper like the bad dog he was.

* * *

“Here it is, sir,” Bonnie presented the article to Sungkyu, sitting behind his oak desk. “Like always, I wrote from my heart,” she defended herself as he quickly skimmed through her piece.

“Maybe from the wrong place in your heart,” Sungkyu muttered under his breath, barely audible. He roughly put down the newspaper and looked at Bonnie with an expression that she wasn’t accustomed to get from him, disappointment. “Some hateful place,” he spoke more loudly this time.

“Sir?” Bonnie’s voice cracked.

“Write it again,” he ordered.

She couldn’t believe her ears. Disappointment from Sungkyu she could handle, but him telling her to redo her article, articles that he usually praised, cut her deeply. Maybe she had misheard. “Beg your pardon.”

Sungkyu folded his hand and rested his elbows on his desk. “Write it again,” he repeated. “Your facts are wrong. You didn’t even conduct a proper interview.  Do it again, and actually talk to Woohyun. Get to know him. Get your facts right,” he reprimanded. He picked up the paper and glanced at it again, scoffing. “ ‘Disingenuous smile’? Did you even look at the kid properly?”

Bonnie felt her temper rise. She took a deep breath, trying to control it, but it barely helped. “Yes, I did, sir,” she said more curtly than she intended. “But you asked me to write my opinion—“

But Sungkyu cut her off with a simple wave of his hand. Bonnie clamped her mouth tightly. “I can’t defend Woohyun’s baking skills. What you wrote there may be true,” he tried to defuse Bonnie’s temper. “But—I’m not saying this because he’s a good friend—Nam Woohyun is seriously one of the best people I know. He deserves a second look. Now get out of my office. I have important editing business to take care of,” he commanded as he picked up the phone on his desk and began dialing.

Bonnie wordlessly bowed and left his office, but not before eavesdropping on his phone conversation. “Hello? Mommy?” Sungkyu said in a soft voice. “Yes I ate…Do you really need to know that?!” Bonnie sighed, not only letting go some air from her lungs but also letting go of some of the respect she held for her boss.

* * *

“Stupid, biased jerk,” Bonnie mumbled at she stomped back to her cubicle. Luckily, Howon was attending a baseball game and could not harass her about the recent turn of events; however her luck wasn’t that good nor her cubicle empty. When she returned, she found Woohyun spinning around in her swivel chair, making ‘whooooooooosh’-ing noises. Bonnie cleared her throat. He immediately jumped from the chair and chuckled embarrassedly. “You’re still here? Shouldn’t you be at the bakery?” she asked.

“The bakery is closed today,” Woohyun announced.

Bonnie walked past him and sat down in her chair. “Why? It’s not a holiday.”

“It is for me,” he retorted. Bonnie rolled her eyes, wondering if the baker seriously took the day off just so he could harass her.

Bonnie chose to give him a report of the meeting she just shared with Woohyun, hoping that he would leave afterwards. “Well, your _dear_ _friend_ is making me rewrite the article. You win.”

“He’s a good hyung,” Woohyun shared, leaning against the wall, rooting himself into her cubicle like a tree.

While he decided to linger, Bonnie decided to indulge her curiosity. “How do you two know each other anyway?”

“From school, like most people,” he divulged playing with the edges of her wall calendar (of rabbits, courteously of Howon). “You might not know this, but he and I minored in music together.”

“You play an instrument?” Bonnie asked. She wondered if she could consider this weak report an interview, to satisfy Sungkyu’s wishes.

“If you count our vocal chords as an instrument, then yes,” he joked. “We used to sing together at recitals.”

Bonnie’s curiosity was ignited. She spun towards Woohyun and arched an eyebrow. “It’s hard to imagine my boss singing,” she argued.

Woohyun nodded. “You should hear him. He has a voice like an angel.” There again was his practiced smile.

 _As if I need any more reason to be attracted to my boss_ , she thought, but then she shook that thought from her head. “And what about you?” she asked.

Woohyun looked up at the ceiling and thought for a second. “Hm…a seraphim. That’s a high order of angels, right? In comparison, Gyu-hyung’s just a little cherub,” he declared, chuckling.

Bonnie had just enough of Woohyun’s hot air. “When are you going to leave? I have work to do,” she declared, turning to her computer.

Woohyun walked over and put a hand on her chair spinning it around. “Aren’t I your work now? I’m still your assignment,” he reminded her. He then extend a hand in her direction. “Come with me.”

Bonnie looked at his hand skeptically. “Why?”

Woohyun rolled his eyes. “Research for your article,” he said, his hand still outstretched. He wiggled his finger tips in order to make his hand look tempting.

“The bakery is closed today,” Bonnie repeating what he had told her.

“Trust me. Today is the most important day of the year for the bakery,” he spoke with sincerity. “If you want the whole truth, come with me.”

Bonnie stood up on her own, rejecting his hand, but that didn’t faze the baker. “Let me get my coat,” she responded, hating herself a little for following the man’s whims. She hoped that she wouldn’t regret it later.

Woohyun pulled her coat from behind him. “Already have it.” He then insisted on helping her put it on. Bonnie was already starting to regret following him.

* * *

Within the hour, Bonnie found herself in Woohyun’s apartment, wishing that she was wearing anything else besides her pink peacoat and kelly green dress. She rubbed her sweaty palms against her knees as she was kneeling in front of a makeshift altar with a photo of a middle-aged woman in the middle of it. Woohyun was busy arranging various foods around the framed photo. After he was done, he pulled back, kneeled next to Bonnie, and smile with his forced smile. “This is my aunt,” he announced pointing to the photo. “She was the original owner of the bakery.”

“Oh…hello,” Bonnie said with a awkward bow, not knowing the proper decorum for greeting the deceased. “I’m Choi Bonnie. It’s nice to meet you.”

Woohyun chuckled. “Auntie,” he began. “Tokki-ssi wrote a very bad review about your bakery. You should haunt her for the rest of her life.” Bonnie looked at him with wide-eyes, and her face grew pale. Woohyun saw her reaction and laughed even harder. He nudged her in the side. “I’m just kidding, but I guess you can tell why the bakery is closed now. It’s her anniversary.”

Bonnie let out the breath of air she was unconsciously holding in. She was relieved that Woohyun was joking around, but there was something about the dead in general that made her uncomfortable. To say that she was a tad bit superstitious was an understatement. Bonnie had inherited crazy superstitions about the dead and luck from her mother, even causing her to perform silly routines (like throwing salt over her left shoulder to ward away the devil).  So now in this situation, she was feeling very uncomfortable, wearing bright colors in a funerary ceremony and getting ‘cursed.’ She shifted in her spot as if that would shake her of the uncomfortable feeling and cleared her throat. “It is sort of a holiday,” Bonnie quietly admitted. “So what was the bakery like when she owned it?”

Woohyun faced the photo and smiled with tight lips. “It was different. Very different. Back then it was called—“

“Love Love Bakery,” a voice coming from behind him finished for him. Bonnie jumped up in shock; she turned around slowly wishing that the voice didn’t belong to Woohyun’s dead aunt. Then her eyes met with familiar pitch-black eyes. It was the sculpture-like waiter from the shop, posing in the doorway with his arms crossed across his chest.

“Oh, you’re—“ Bonnie began but her voice drifted away. She could not recall his name, and now it was dancing somewhere on the tip of her tongue.

The waiter didn’t seem to care and politely smiled. “Kim Myungsoo,” he answered stepping forward and kneeling on the other side of Bonnie. “I’m his cousin,” he said nodding towards Woohyun. “And her son.” He faced the framed photo with a grave face. Then he turned to Bonnie and smiled crookedly. “And co-owner of the bakery. Am I the person with the ‘disingenuous smile’?”

“Huh? You’re an owner too?” she asked. Bonnie mentally slapped herself in the head. Sungkyu was right: her facts were wrong. She had not conducted her investigation of the bakery properly at all. She had wanted to get it done as quickly as possible, and it resulted in sloppy work. And now, she quite possibly ruined their reputation wrongfully. _No_ , Bonnie counter-argued in her mind. _They are still making profit on playing with people’s feelings._

The smile dropped from Myungsoo’s face. “You didn’t know…did you think that I was just a waiter?” he asked with his head bowed towards his lap. Although Bonnie didn’t say anything, her silence was her answer.

Woohyun sensed his cousin’s distress and reached behind Bonnie to pat Myungsoo’s back.  “Soo is way more than the co-owner. He’s the savior of the bakery,” Woohyun said proudly and a small, embarrassed smile appeared on his cousin’s face. “Without him the business would have gone under already. He’s a genius with numbers.”

Myungsoo raised and turned away his head. “I’m not,” he dismissed with the wave of his hand. “I just like them…a lot. And it’s my mom’s legacy. I couldn’t let it die like—“ His voice stopped in his throat. His eyes fell on his mother’s portrait. Woohyun moved from patting Myungsoo’s back to smoothing out the hair on his head. Bonnie, still caught in between the two cousins, awkwardly leaned forward because Woohyun’s arm had been rubbing against her own back. She winced, wondering if it would be inappropriate to excuse herself. Right as she opened her mouth, a loud crashing sound cut her off.

Unlike Bonnie, the cousins didn’t even flinch when they heard the thumping sound coming up the stairs into their apartment. They just calmly turned around to the source of the sound. “Hey guys, am I late?” the noisemaker asked as soon as he reached the top of the stairs. It was the waiter with the sharp features. He was fumbling with the black bag he was carrying that seemed to be fighting against him; something was alive and squirming in the bag. “You won’t believe how much trouble I went through to find a live octopus. But we have to get it because it was Mom’s favorite. She had weird tastes,” the waiter said in exasperation as a tentacle gripped the outer edges of the bag and he tried hard to force the octopus back in. Finally triumphing over the creature, he lifted his gaze and saw Bonnie staring at him with her mouth a gape.  “Oh, hello,” he smiled brightly, practically exposing every tooth in his mouth.

“Hyung, you remember Choi Bonnie,” Woohyun re-introduced the writer to the newcomer. “Tokki-ssi, this is Jang Dongwoo,” he said softly,  raising his hand towards Dongwoo.

“Ah! The one who wrote the article. Good to see you again,” Dongwoo cheerfully spoke as he walked over to the altar and placed the octopus in an empty bowl. Bonnie watched the sea creature wiggle like gelatin, tentacles gripping the rim. Dongwoo took a seat next to Myungsoo who automatically began to lean against the other unconsciously. But Dongwoo’s gaze was fixed on Bonnie. “We’ve been having an argument over who’s the owner with the ‘disingenuous smile.’ Is it me?” he asked with a slight giggle.

Bonnie stared at him, blinking in disbelief. “Dongwoo-ssi, you own the bakery too?” she asked. Her eyes flickered over the three boys’ faces. “How many owners does this bakery have?” she exclaimed.

“Well, legally,” Dongwoo carefully began, “only Nam-goon and Myungsoo own it. They inherited it from Mom, and I guess they inherited me too. But they were nice enough to give me a share of the bakery.” Bonnie narrowed her eyes on the speaker’s face. This was the second time he had called the owner ‘Mom.’ He looked nothing like the woman in the portrait nor the man leaning against his side. Wasn’t Myungsoo’s family name ‘Kim’? Bonnie could’ve sworn Woohyun introduced the newcomer as ‘Jang Dongwoo.’

As if he could read her mind, Woohyun leaned closer towards her and explained, “Hyung isn’t blood-related as you can tell. My aunt took him in after he ran away from his home in Jeonju.”

“But it doesn’t make him any less of a brother,” Myungsoo said as he draped an arm on Dongwoo’s shoulders. Dongwoo smiled brightly and rest his head on top of his ‘brother’s.’

“You ran away from home?” the question came from Bonnie’s mouth before she could realize how sensitive the issue might be for the other.

Dongwoo, on the other hand, was more than happy to indulge in her curiosity. “Yes, when I was seven. My birth parents weren’t the best; they had their problems.” He then bowed his head and shook it. “To be honest I don’t remember much about them. But I remember that I had two sisters. They had ran away one night and left me alone with my parents. And things got worse. So when I got enough money, I ran as far as I could and somehow ended up at Mom and Dad’s doorstep.” He looked towards the photo of his adoptive mother, and his eyes were shining. “They were really the best parents I could ask for. And they raised me as their own son.”

“As far as I can remember, hyung’s been a part of our family,” Myungsoo added.

All the sudden, Bonnie wished that she had brought her tape recorder (Woohyun had whisked her away before she could grab it). She put her hands in her coat pockets as she scanned Dongwoo’s face again, and saw it in a new light. He was happy. He was genuinely happy in spite of his horrible past and today being the death anniversary of his mother. That smile was perhaps the truest smile Bonnie had ever witnessed in her life. As she studied his face, another prying question fell past her lips, “But what about your birth parents? Didn’t they look for you?”

“They’re both in jail now,” the smile fled his face with his answer.

But Bonnie’s curiosity was unrelenting, especially with Dongwoo being so accommodating and open. “Why didn’t your mom hand down the bakery to you? Why only Woohyun-ssi and Myungsoo-ssi?”

“At the time, I was a dancer,” he answered, and his body began to sway rhythmically to silent music. “And I was about to entire a major dance troupe. I had my career almost set. But then I got into a car accident with a drunk driver that shattered my ankle.” Bonnie’s eyes drifted down towards his legs, and he wasn’t kneeling like the rest of them, with their thighs resting on their heels. He was sitting cross legged, taking the pressure off of his ankles.

“After listening to his sob story, you’re probably not surprised why we gave him a share of the bakery,” Woohyun joked giving Bonnie a hard nudge in her ribs. She shot him a nasty glare, which only made him grin in delight.

“Hey,” Dongwoo interrupted their little staring match. “The settlement from that accident paid for the renovations.”

“Can you get hit again? I’ve been thinking of expanding,” Woohyun asked with a chuckle.

“Is that all I’m good for? Getting into car wrecks?” Dongwoo asked in mock pain, playing along with his cousin.

But Myungsoo interpreted his brother’s fake pain as real. He looked up at him and encouraged him, “You’re also good at advertising, hyung.”

“What advertising?” Bonnie asked with furrowed brows. “ I’ve never seen a flyer or an ad in the newspaper or anywhere for that matter.”

“It’s a different kind of advertising,” Dongwoo said proudly. “Our business thrives on our boyfriend image, and no boyfriend promotes himself by handing out flyers.” He laughed at his own joke. Myungsoo joined in, as did Woohyun. Bonnie found herself awkwardly laughing along as to not feel left out.

“Then what do you do?” she asked when the laughter died down.

Dongwoo explained, “Nam-goon would bake something, and we’d package it, attaching a love note with the name of the shop at the bottom. Then we'd go and hand them outside of schools, shopping malls, theaters, places where you’d typically meet up with your boyfriend.”

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Bonnie concluded. Her eyes flittered over to Woohyun who was unexpectedly quiet this entire time. She had pegged him as a talkative type and was surprised to see him give way so easily to Dongwoo.

“But it’s worth it,” Dongwoo called back her attention. “It’s also how we express our love and gratitude for our customers.”

“Don’t you mean ‘girlfriends,’ “ Bonnie remarked with a raised eyebrow.

Dongwoo and Myungsoo broke out into a fit of laughter. Woohyun looked away sheepishly. “Only Woohyun-hyung insists on calling them that. It’s so cheesy,” Dongwoo explained in between heavy breaths.

“And even then he doesn’t consistently call them that,” Myungsoo wheezed. His sculpture like image was gradually chipping away, exposing the child-like innocence underneath his marble exterior.

 “We should probably start the ceremony,” Woohyun huffed as he crawled up to the altar to make some finishing touches. Bonnie began to giggle seeing how much it bothered Woohyun to be mocked by his cousins. But the laughter was immediately caught in her throat when Woohyun suddenly turned back towards her with a hurt look on his face. As he crawled back into his position, Bonnie looked towards the other two, and the three of them silently laughed together.

* * *

After the ceremony finished, the triad of owners insisted that she stay for dinner. Even though she claimed that she wasn’t hungry, she still found herself sandwiched in between the two handsome brothers as they struggled over the side-dishes and the left-over bread from the bakery. Woohyun was busy making another dish. She watched him carefully as arranged he arranged the food on the plate and sat down. Woohyun only ate the food from that dish and did not indulge in the other items scattered across the table. He just smirked as he saw his cousins fight over the last sweet roll. Then his eyes fell on Bonnie, who was moving the food around on her plate. She looked up from the plate and noticed that Woohyun was staring at her curiously. She coughed awkwardly and averted her gaze.“What was the original bakery called again?” Bonnie asked, resuming her interview.

“Love Love Bakery,” Myungsoo answered cramming into his mouth the roll that he just wretched from his brother.

“I think I remember it,” Bonnie said in a daze. “It was a really small, quaint place, but the food was good.”

Woohyun nodded and added, “She baked with every ounce of her heart. That’s why is was called ‘Love Love.’”

“She said that it was her special ingredient,” Dongwoo remarked, taking some of Myungsoo’s meat from his plate.

Myungsoo didn’t even notice because he was in the middle of reminiscing. “Yea, Mom used to even press little hearts into the cookies. Do you remember that?” he asked turning to his brother, who just nodded in response because his cheeks were bursting full of stolen meat.

“Eung,” Woohyun answered his cousin. “Her goal was to have everything taste like it was made by your own mother,” he explained turning his attention back to Bonnie.

“Well, she was my mom, so it always tasted like that,” Myungsoo remarked with a laugh. Then he looked at his plate and noticed it was empty. He turned to Dongwoo with killer eyes, and his brother just grinned in return, swallowing the last traces of his thievery. Myungsoo punched his hyung in the arm.

Bonnie laughed at the bickering brothers, and she studied Myungsoo’s face. He looked so much like his mother. Bonnie had lied when she said that she ‘thought’ she remembered Love Love Bakery. That establishment was seared into her memory; it was a crucial part of her childhood, visiting it almost daily. On more than one occasion, she had come to the bakery with tears in her eyes, finding solace in the homemade breads and cookies. The food back then did eminate some kind of homemade nostalgic goodness that warmed the heart right as it hit the tongue. No before that, when the smells wafting from the bakery entered into young Bonnie's nose, all of her cares drifted away. Also true to her mission statement, Myungsoo's mother did serve as a motherly figure, taking the time to get to know each and every one of her customers, Bonnie included. And on every single one of those occasions when Bonnie raced into the bakery with tear-filled eyes, the owner would give a nice, warm hug, like her own mother would have. Love Love Bakery was a comforting place; it was a second home. And now, Bonnie felt as if it was degraded into a fantasy land for teenage girls and lonesome women.

 “The bakery has changed a lot since then,” Bonnie muttered.

“Well, I can’t exactly bake like a mother, can I?” Woohyun bombastically commented, shattering Bonnie’s reverie. “That’s why we went with the boyfriend concept.”

“It was my idea!” Myungsoo exclaimed, slamming his chopsticks on the table for emphasis.

“And he won’t let us forget it,” Dongwoo retorted, ruffling his little brother’s hair. “Besides, didn’t you get it from watching a drama?”

“Yes,” Myungsoo confessed, fixing his hair. “But I thought it would be fun to work with friends like they did in the show. And we all happen to be good-looking.”

Bonnie looked at him incredously, remembering the nerdy waiter from the day before. What was his name, Sungyeol? Of course, her weak heart would recall the name of the outcast of the group. Then her head perked up. “The other servers are your friends?” she asked for clarification.

“Yes,” Woohyun answered, biting his lower lip. “That’s why I didn’t answer your question about it during the interview. I thought it would reflect poorly on the bakery if I said that there was no real hiring process and we just hired friends.”

“Howon would be sad to hear that,” Bonnie remarked with a smirk. “He really wanted to join the bakery after seeing all the fangirls you guys have.”

With that comment, the three owners looked at each other with resigned looks and sighed. Dongwoo was the one who broke the silence.“We didn’t expect the bakery to become like this, to be honest,” he started. “We’re just five friendly boys. We always said nice things to customers, maybe a little more so than your average waiter. But we just wanted to show them that we appreciate them coming to our little bakery. Then…it sort of got out of hand.” He ended gesturing with his hands to convey his feelings.

Woohyun shot a nasty glare at Myungsoo. “I blame Sungyeol,” he snarled.

Myungsoo threw his hands up in the air. “Don’t look at me. I don’t control him.” He then gave his trademark crooked smile. “Plus we’re making more money now, and I don’t hear you complaining about that.” Woohyun blushed and averted his gaze.

Bonnie still was still bursting with questions, “But what about all ‘prince’ names?”

“Those were nicknames given by the customers. We kind of took them up and ran with them,” Woohyun admitted.

“Your customers did?”

“Yea, they even write fanfiction about us,” Myungsoo added with a childish giggle.

Dongwoo’s head perked up. “Really? Where?”

“I’ll show you,” Myungsoo said pulling out his cell phone to bring the site on his screen. Woohyun glared at him and mouthed at him to stop. “I’ll just send you the link later,” his cousin gave in.

“Send me the link too,” Bonnie interjected. The three boys gave her amused looks. “For research!” she clarified, but they didn't look convinced.

“Riiiiiight,” Woohyun said with a cheeky smile. He stood up and began to gather the dishes. “We should clean up. We have to get up early. Myungsoo, why don’t you show Tokki-ssi—what are you doing?” He stopped what he was doing and watched Bonnie as she picked up the remaining dishes.

She looked up at him, wondering why he was so taken aback. “You fed me dinner. It’s only right that I help to clean up,” she answered as she walked over to the sink.

“Myungsoo and I will clean up and prepare the kitchen,” Dongwoo said as he pulled his baby brother by the collar down the stairs into the bakery. Myungsoo just waved as he was helplessly dragged by his hyung.

Woohyun chuckled seeing his cousins fool around. Then he approached the kitchen sink apprehensively, watching Bonnie carefully lay the dishes inside of it. She then picked up the rubber gloves which were laying next to the sink and put them on, easily assimilating herself in his kitchen. Her rubber encased hand reached towards Woohyun as it wrested the plates from his grip. Woohyun raised an eyebrow, surprised that this nasty food critic appeared to be only cruel in print. In reality, she was…pleasant. He had thought the same the first time they met too. But there was such a strong disconnect between her two sides, which left him wondering which of the two sides was real. Then her voice broke his line of thought. “You’re kind of a health nut, aren’t you?” she asked, scraping the residue off of his plate.

“Huh?” Woohyun murmured. He rolled up his sleeves and started to dry the dishes that she had finished cleaning.

“You eat way healthier than the other two,” she explained, barely lifting her gaze from the bowl she was furiously scrubbing. “And it looks like you don’t eat carbs in general.”

Woohyun took the bowl from her hands and dried it like it was the most precious thing in the world. “I do it’s just,” he admitted, hesitating before he continued.  He didn’t really like confessing his weakness, but he knew that he had to clear the air between them. “I’m gluten-intolerant…and a diabetic. So running a bakery is hard sometimes.” _And life is hard sometimes_.

Bonnie stopped what she was doing and stared at him with her mouth a gape. He could practically see her mind slowly connect the dots. “Then why don’t you bake things you can actually eat?” she asked with a drawl.

“I might as well make it vegan while I’m at it,” Woohyun joked with a snort. “No one will buy that stuff. Hand me that plate,” he ordered pointing at the half-cleaned dish in Bonnie’s hand. Snapping out of her daze, she quickly scrubbed it clean and handed it to him, who smiled with closed lips before continuing, “Besides, what we’re selling goes beyond just cakes and cookies. It’s an experience. It’s your boyfriend taking the time to whip up your favorite dessert. It’s essentially love through food.” He glanced over at Bonnie who rolled her eyes in his direction. “Just because I can’t taste what I make doesn’t mean that I bake without an ounce of love,” he defended himself as he pouted.

“Can I see it?” Bonnie suddenly asked. She then turned her attention to the last dirty dish. “See you bake, I mean,” she needlessly clarified.

Woohyun’s face shone smugly as he threw the towel over his shoulder and leaned his back against the sink. “Of course,” he replied.

“Good. What time should I come in?” she asked as she handed him the last dish.

“3 AM,” he answered nonchalantly, whipping the towel from his shoulder and used it to wipe the plate clean.

“3 AM?!” Bonnie exclaimed. She was in the middle of taking off the rubber gloves when she received the startling news. She let go of the rubber, and it snapped back and stung her skin.

Woohyun looked pleased and the practiced smile appeared again on his face, causing Bonnie to frown. “Yep, and if you want to get a full night’s sleep, you should probably go home soon,” he comment glancing up at the clock. But Bonnie’s eyes drifted towards the window and saw the sun’s rays filtering through the flimsy curtains.

“It’s still light outside,” she whined. She heard a chuckle come from behind her, and she turned to see Woohyun with her peacoat In his hands. She bit the inside of her cheek and reluctantly let Woohyun help shove her arms into its sleeves(but she was later grateful that he did help because her still wet hands stuck to the lining, making it difficult to put on).

“Trust Papa Woohyun, Tokki-ssi. You’ll want to sleep,” Woohyun warned and stepped away from Bonnie.

Bonnie scoffed as she buttoned up her coat, “Why?” She roughly thrust her hands in her pocket and narrowed her eyes. “Plotting revenge for the article, _Papa Woohyun_?” She pronounced the last part as if it were venom.

Woohyun eye’s practically closed as his smile raised his cheeks. “No—“ he began but a crashing noise came from downstairs. Dongwoo suddenly appeared in the room with his eyes wild. He put a finger to his lips and he crawled softly but quickly underneath the table. Bonnie turned towards Woohyun who started counting down, “3, 2, 1.”

“YAH! JANG DONGWOO!” Myungsoo shrieked as he ran up the stairs. Once the youngest entered the kitchen, Bonnie immediately brought her hands to her mouth, trying to stifling the laughter that was slipping out through the gaps in between her fingers. Now Myungsoo did look like a sculpture, entirely white, covered head-to-toe in only what Woohyun could assume was flour. Myungsoo was blinking wildly, the powder falling into his eyes. “Hyung! Where is he?” he demanded.

Woohyun shrugged, but Bonnie, having no allegiance and feeling bad for walking sculpture, pointed to the table. Dongwoo caught her actions out of the corner of his eye. “Yah! Traitor!” he exclaimed as Myungsoo was pulling his brother out from under the table by his collar. Dongwoo cast a glance back to Bonnie and pouted, “I thought you were nice, Bonnie-ssi.” Bonnie’s voice was caught in her throat, not knowing whether to say ‘sorry’ or that he deserved to be brought to ‘justice.’ Woohyun, on the other hand, laughed with abandon. Dongwoo faced his brother and apologetically smiled. “I’m sorry. It was an accident, I swear.”

“Accident or not, you still need to pay me back,” Myungsoo threatened, his eyes looking more fierce and empty than when he discovered Dongwoo had stolen his food. He tightened his grip on Dongwoo’s collar and began to lean in closer, his lips puckering.

“Ack! NO!” Dongwoo leaned away from his brother and his brother’s lips and wriggled free of his captor. “Don’t come any closer, Soo-ah! I’m warning you!” Dongwoo threatened as he backed into the hallway. He then sprint down it with Myungsoo close on his trail, leaving little flecks of flour in his wake.

With those two now gone (Dongwoo had locked himself in his room and Myungsoo was currently trying to break down the door), Bonnie looked at Woohyun, who gave her his practiced smile and said, “Like I said, you should go to bed soon, especially if you want to keep up. And those two are the least of your worries.” He then politely showed Bonnie to the door and they exchanged farewells. As soon as the door closed, she could hear Woohyun yell at his cousins to clean up the flour mess in the kitchen, probably thinking that Bonnie couldn’t hear.

Bonnie sighed. Kim Sungkyu had been right. Flower Boy Bake Shop appeared to be not what she had thought it was. Nor was Nam Woohyun. _What kind of place is this?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * * *
> 
> **A/N:** I really really _really_ like the idea of Dongwoo and Myungsoo being "brothers," especially since I think that they are the members with the most contrasting looks. 
> 
> But even more than that, they are two of the sweetest members, more alike personality-wise than you would expect. So I think that because they act so similar, it might be believable that they were raised by the same parents...might be believable.
> 
> Also, can you imagine these three goofballs running a business together?
> 
> These three  _would_ actually try to run a place similar to "Flower Boy Bake Shop."


	3. The Third Tier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonnie gets acquainted with the Flower Boys.

Bonnie never thought of herself as a night owl, not until Nam Woohyun had sent her to bed at 7 o’clock that night. She felt like a child. In fact, she felt so much like a child that she was compelled to rebel against Papa Woohyun’s warning and decided to stay up all night instead. Besides, as of late, she had gotten in the bad habit of staying up late to finish her article just minutes before the deadline.

But now she had no deadline. Now she had nothing to do but wait for 3 AM to shine on her digital clock. She had ran some late-night errands already, including picking up the fruit basket that she had promised Woohyun in a nervous fit (but she would feel guilty if she didn’t follow-through with the promise). She had painted her fingernails, her toenails, and even a tiny mural on her wall (which she’d probably be later reprimanded for by her parents even though she is now a grown woman, but parents don’t seem to notice or care about that). Succumbing to boredom, she was laying in her bed counting the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling that she had put up when she was younger. “43…that’s a weird number. Is it a prime number?” She shook her head and sat up. “What am I doing?” Then a small smile crept unto her face. “I guess that I can do some ‘research.’ Myungsoo-ssi did say that he would send me the link for the fanfics.” But as soon as she opened her laptop, she realized something and slapped her face. “I never gave him my email address.” She sighed and stared at the screen for a few seconds. “But I guess that I could watch that drama that they based the bakery on,” she concluded searching the internet for the episodes.

Bonnie hadn’t watched a drama in a long time. She didn’t have the time. But now, she had more time than she knew what to do with. She had heard about the “Flower Boy” series of dramas, known for their gorgeous male leads and a innocent doe-eyed woman in the center of it all. To be honest, it wasn’t on the top of her ‘must see’ list (actually she wasn’t sure if the dramas even made the cut), but now, for the sake of research, she had to…okay so she finally wanted to and had the time to do so.

Immediately, she was sucked into the story-line. The female lead was a stronger, quirkier protagonist than she had expected. She spoke her mind and always did what she thought was right. To Bonnie, she was admirable. But then there was the womanizing male lead, using slick words to entice women to do his bidding. A man so wrapped up in his little ‘love games’ that he couldn’t recognize when he had genuine feelings for someone. Bonnie hated him (she had too much of that type lately and could not stomach one more). Not only that but he was also significantly younger than the female lead. The match seemed improbable, even though the drama seemed to be heading in that direction. Bonnie however, wished the path of the plot would take an unexpected turn, landing the woman into the arms of the kind-hearted chef. A chef who gathered a band of misfit boys in an grand attempt to form a family, with him as the father and the female lead as the mother. This was the obvious choice, in Bonnie’s mind, the right choice.

Before pressing play for the next episode, Bonnie’s eyes quickly glanced upwards towards the clock. It was 2:50 AM. “Holy crap on a cracker!” she exclaimed, falling off her bed. She quickly looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing her large-framed glasses that she had gotten in high school and was still dressed in her green plaid pajamas. And her hair, well, she’d rather not look at the nest it became on top of her head. Bonnie then became a whirlwind, moving as quickly as she could and making herself look presentable before exiting out her door at 2:55…but then she had to immediately go back in to retrieve her recorder and fruit basket.

* * *

“She’s late,” Woohyun muttered, glancing upwards at the clock on the kitchen wall. He was carefully whisking eggs in a bowl. “I wonder if she’s even going to show,” he mused, looking back at his bowl. He still hadn’t been able to peg the food critic, and so he could not tell if she would actually keep her promise. _But she hadn’t done anything for me to suspect that she would stand me up_.

A soft rapt at the side door caught his attention. Woohyun carefully put down his bowl and walked over to the door. He opened it and was greeted with a mountain of fruits being thrust into his face. “Oh! My fruit basket!” he happily exclaimed, accepting the gift from who he assumed (but hadn’t yet seen) was Bonnie. “You remembered, Tokki-ssi. I’m flattered.” Once he brought the basket to his side, Bonnie’s face was revealed, and she looked…different. Her reddish-brown hair was hastily thrown up in a bun on her head, with curly tendrils escaping it. Her eyes were puffy and stained dark, a sure sign that she had not slept (or hadn’t slept well). But what drew Woohyun’s attention were the curious brown flecks dancing across the bridge of her nose and onto her cheeks. _Freckles._

“Um,” Bonnie mumbled nervously. “Can I come in?”

“Of course!” Woohyun answered, drawing her into the kitchen by the crook of her elbow. He now could see her face clearly in the kitchen’s light. The freckles becoming more prominent. “I didn’t know you had freckles, Tokki-ssi. They’re cute,” he complimented as he returned to whisking eggs.

Bonnie’s hands immediately flew to her cheeks. “Don’t say that,” she muttered in a barely audible whisper. Woohyun raised his eyebrow, curious as to why she would rebuff his compliment so. It wasn’t because it was her modesty or humbleness; it was said in disbelief, skeptically. She didn’t elaborate and instead took in a deep breath and sat in a stool at the countertop, right across from Woohyun. Pulling a tape recorder from her pocket, she placed the device on the table. Then she looked up at him with a stern look on her face. “Tell me about your process,” she commanded as she pressed play. She then lazily yawned and rested her head in her hands.

“Well, I…wait, should I talk directly into the device?” he asked. He brought his face closer to the device until it was hovering mere centimeters above it. “I start by…”

Bonnie put an index finger onto his forehead and pushed him back to his original position. “There’s no need to be so close. The recorder can pick up your voice from over there,” she said, slightly blushing and drew her coat closer to her body. Woohyun glanced down at the tape recorder again. It was placed right next to her chest. His head had been right next to her…

“Ah, sorry,” he quickly apologized, feeling his own cheeks growing hot at the realization. Bonnie didn’t seem to mind so much as she opened her mouth into a gaping yawn. She then gestured at him to continue. “Oh right, my process,” he began. “Well, normally the three of us, me, Myungsoo, and Dongwoo…do you need last names?”

Bonnie wearily gave him a thumbs up. “Got them last night.”

“Okay, so the three of us would make a menu the night before. Then I would have to wake up early to bake. Since I can’t taste this stuff, or I’d become sick, I have to rely on my other senses moreso. So it takes me twice as long as a normal baker to do the same job,” he explained.

“Your other senses?” Bonnie asked, wrinkling her nose.

Woohyun nodded. “Mostly smell, but by sight too you can tell if something is made properly or not. Then by touch, you can tell how the dough end up, whether it’d be dry or moist or crumbly. But most importantly, I have to make sure I measure out everything properly. I’m not to that point as a baker to know instinctively what is a good balance, what is enough or too much.”

Bonnie nodded. Like she correctly analyzed before, he did follow recipes, but not as blindly as she’d once thought. He tried to place in as many checks as he could. He was accurate. “Where do you get your ideas for the recipes?” she asked, watching him pour the eggs into a bowl full of various powders, and he carefully began to fold them in.

“Mostly from my aunt’s recipe book,” he answered not even looking up, concentrating fully at the task at hand, which also cause him to answer questions slowly. “But I tried to make my own, but as you can imagine, it’s kind of hard to do,” he said, looking up at Bonnie and delivering his practiced smile. Bonnie nodded, urging him to continue. “But I looked in books and magazines for ideas and even asked around the neighborhood.”

“Do you test them?” Bonnie asked, resting her head on the countertop, her eyelids slowly drooping.

“Whenever I have free time, and help,” he replied.

She nuzzled her cheek into her forearm as she looked up at him curiously. “Help?”

He put down the bowl and placed his hands on the countertop. He looked at Bonnie and cocked his head. “Tokki-ssi. Do you seriously think that I would serve things to my girlfriends without having them  taste-tested first?” She was speechless and fixed her eyes on the tape recorder sheepishly. “Aigoo! You have so little faith in me, Tokki-ssi. It hurts,” he half-joked.

She flicked the tape recorder in circles with her forefinger. "Who helps you?" she asked, still embarrassed to look him in the eye.

Woohyun's eyes darted towards the clock. "He'll be here in a few minutes...if he can actually wake up. The boy sleeps like a rock," he answered. He noticed that Bonnie was only half-listening to him as she nodded along (or nodded off), but her eyes were fixated on his hands as they carefully pulled the dough from the bowl and began to knead it onto the countertop. He too, turned his attention to his hands, wondering what was so fascinating about them.

In silence, he continued to measure, pour, mix, knead, and bake like he usually did every morning, thinking that the exhausted writer had dozed off while he was prepping. Although the kitchen was twice as quiet as it normally was (he would normally turn on the radio, but he didn't want to disturb Bonnie), he felt more comfortable this way. The presence of someone else  in his kitchen was better than the presence of noise, even if it was the nasty little food critic. He chuckled to himself at that thought. Was he really that lonely in the mornings?

"It's amazing," he heard Bonnie mumble under her breath and turned to her. She was still awake, watching him, and was embarrassed not meaning to have said that outloud. But the words slipped past her lips before her tired brain could register them. She had been watching Woohyun attentively this entire time. Analyzing him as he methodically and carefully went through all of the steps...with a concerned expression on his face. It wasn't the typical look of concentration that she'd been used to seeing grace the faces of chefs. No, it was an expression of geniune concern. This is how she imagined an amateur baker looking like if he was baking for a queen...or a boyfriend making something for his girlfriend for the first time. And it was at that realization, when those words slipped out. "It's amazing," _he really does bake with his whole heart._

"Wah! Am I impressing you now? I'm amazing? Didn't take much to go from someone with no substance to amazing," he boasted, puffing his cheeks.

Bonnie scoffed, "It's amazing that I hadn't fallen asleep yet. I didn't sleep a wink last night." And with that, she let out a loud yawn.

Woohyun tsked and lightly slapped her head with the back of his hand. "You didn't listen to Papa Woohyun," he reprimanded. 

She batted away his hand and glared. "Stop calling yourself that! Yer not me Da!"

"Me...da?" Woohyun repeated with a cock of his head.

Bonnie shoved her hands in her pockets and turned away. "I mean, my dad. You're not my dad," she corrected herself quietly. Then she faced him again and smirked. "I can still keep up with you guys, with my hands tied behind my back." _And with coffee in my system_ , Bonnie thought. She sat there wondering when Woohyun would offer some to her, but he probably didn't realize how much she was in need of it. Not with him being so well rested.

A large crashing sound like an elephant stomping up on cymbals came from upstairs. Woohyun smirked and looked at Bonnie. "Let's test that theory," he challenged.

"I'M LATE! I'M LATE! I'M SO SORRY, NAM-GOON! I OVERSLEPT!" Dongwoo yelled as he clambered down the stairs and into the kitchen. He came to a halt once he laid eyes on the writer. "Oh, good morning, Bonnie-ssi. Good to see you again," he greeted with a wave.

"Good morning, Dongwoo-ssi," Bonnie responded cheerfully. "What are you doing up so early?"

The answer came from Woohyun instead: "Tokki-ssi, meet my official food-tester!" 

Dongwoo walked over to his cousin's side and put his arm around him. "It's the least I could do because I can't bake or crunch numbers..."

"Or wake up on time," Woohyun added with a chuckle.

"I already said I was sorry," Dongwoo apologized sincerely, clutching onto his cousin's shoulders tighter.

Woohyun smiled widely until his eyes became crescent shaped. "It's okay. You know what to do," he commanded nodding towards the finished baked goods.

Dongwoo practically skipped over to the food, and Bonnie wondered how someone could be so energetic in the morning. _I really need to get some coffee_. Bonnie narrowed her eyes on Woohyun who was putting an other tray into the oven. _When is he going to offer me some?!_ She turned back to Dongwoo who was now opening his jaw larger than she'd seen anybody do before (she thought that only hippos had flip-top mouths, but Dongwoo appeared to have one too). He caught her eye just as he was about to plunge his large teeth into a muffin. He closed his mouth, smile brightly, and offered her the muffin. "Where are my manners? Do you want one?" 

Bonnie reciprocated the smile and waved him off. "No, it's okay. I'm fine," she responded. Dongwoo shrugged and bit into the muffin. Then Woohyun caught her eye as he took an apple from the fruit basket and cocked an eyebrow at her. Bonnie cleared her throat and looked away. "But it would be nice if I could get some..."

"Coffee!" Myungsoo announced as he walked in from the side door with several to-go cups of coffee in his hands. "Oh, Bonnie-ssi," he stopped and his eyes widened. "I didn't know that you were going to be here." Bonnie shifted awkwardly in her seat and staring longingly in the coffee cups in his hands. Myungsoo saw the desperate look in her eyes and smiled. "That's okay," he said as he took a cup from the tray and placed it in front of her. "You can have Yeol's second cup."

"Thank you!" Bonnie almost squealed as she cradled the cup in her hands.

"The boy needs to drink less coffee anyways," Dongwoo said as he dusted crumbs from his lips. "Didn't he develop an irregular heart beat recently?"

Myungsoo looked down at the coffee tray and frowned. "Yea, I should probably stop buying the extra cup...for his heart," his voice dropped.

Dongwoo walked over and crammed a muffin into his brother's open mouth. He patted his back while he spoke, "Eh, don't worry about it, Soo." 

Bonnie watched as Myungsoo struggled to swallow the muffin and as crumbs fell out of his mouth. Even then, when he was making the weirdest faces to take in the muffin in one bite, he still looked incredibly handsome. And then there was Dongwoo, who tenderly brushed the crumbs off his little's brother's mouth. If it weren't for their vastly different looks and different last names, Bonnie could have sworn they were actually brothers.

"Hyung, come over here," Woohyun called to Dongwoo, interrupting the tender moment. Bonnie shot him a disappointing glare, but he didn't seem to notice. "So what did you think about the new recipe?" Woohyun asked, resting an elbow on the counter as his other hand reached for a coffee cup.

Bonnie carefully snuck the tape recorder over to their direction, wanting to record how this dynamic worked. "Well," Dongwoo began. "It was kind of weird," he concluded rubbing the back of his neck. Woohyun hung his head. "I mean, a green tea muffin with orange zest sounded cool, but I think that it's a little too out there for our customers. I don't think we would sell many."

"Hyung is right," Myungsoo chimed in finally swallowing the last bits of the muffin. Woohyun turned to his other cousin with sad eyes. "It's not that it's bad," Myungsoo said defensively. "But our customers always seem to order the same thing."

"Maybe because they don't have more interesting options like this," Woohyun argued, picking up a greenish looking muffin.

Dongwoo took the muffin from his hands. "It's still kind of weird though...and green."

"It looks moldy, doesn't it?" Woohyun asked with a resigned sigh.

"I didn't want to say it," Dongwoo answered with a loud laugh. He then looked at the clock. "Soo, we better get changed. The Ahjummahs will be here soon," he stated as he got up and ran up the stairs. Myungsoo followed closely on his heels but stopped to give a comforting pat on a dejected Woohyun's back before he climbed up the stairs. 

Bonnie looked at Woohyun and bit her lip. She recalled the mediocre and bland tastes of the pastries and such she sampled when she first came to the bakery. They were plain, but also safe. However it didn't mean that Woohyun didn't try to be adventurous with his baking, but his logical cousins would stifle his creativity, claiming it was too risky of a move (which made sense because they were still a burgeoning company). Bonnie could also tell that Woohyun's ideas were rejected fairly often; he gave up so easily and didn't fight them so much, conceding his losing battle. But how could he tell how they tasted? He couldn't try them himself, or else his blood-sugar might spike and his body would grow sick. He had no choice but to trust his cousins' opinion. _It is hard for him to be a baker._

"So, what did Dongwoo mean by 'the Ahjummahs will be here soon'?" Bonnie asked, desperate to get his mind off of his recent failure.

Woohyun did appear to perk up at this change of subject. He lifted himself from the counter and responded, "Our other fans. Ahjummah-fans in the mornings and our girlfriends in the afternoon." He leaned in closer and pressed the stop button on the recorder. Bonnie was about to object, but he cut her off, "This is off the record, but business-wise, the Ahjummahs are more important. They have more money to spend. The mornings is when we make the most of our money." When he finished, he pressed the play button again.

Bonnie nodded knowingly, even though she didn't quite understand why he felt compelled to have the statement be 'off the record.' Was it possible that he didn't want to talk about his customers as sources of money? But that's what they were, weren't they? Bonnie played with the tape recorder in her hands. "Ahjummah-fans, eh?" she commented. "You guys really do seem like idols." Woohyun nodded proudly causing her to giggle at his brashness. "So if I were a fan, would I be considered an Ahjummah-fan or a girlfriend?"

"Mmmm," Woohyun hummed as he thought, tapping his forefinger dramactically against his chin. "Neither, you're an anti," he concluded.

"Right," Bonnie embarrassingly admitted, biting the inside of her cheek, racked with a sudden wave of guilt. She was slowly beginning to see the harshness and the cruelity in her article. It was no wonder why Sungkyu had told her to do it again. It wasn't the startling exposee she had wanted it to be. It instead resembled more of a disgruntled letter to the editor from a reader who misunderstood the main point of the article they were complaining about. She was glad to have been given this second chance, to get things right. "I'm sorry," she finally said, her guilt bubbling to the surface.

Woohyun shook his head. "There's nothing to be sorry for...if we still get business that is," he joked, but he saw a worried expression dash across Bonnie's face. "Don't worry, Tokki-ssi. I'm pretty sure our girlfriends don't even read the newspaper."

"Are you really trying to comfort the person who questioned your integrity and wrote... _very_ mean things about you?" Bonnie asked with a slight laugh.

Woohyun smiled with his odd smirk and nodded. "I'm a great person. I'm practically a saint," he said with a chuckle.

" _Practically_ ," Bonnie emphasized. She then took a sip from her cup, stalling until she could think of another question for him. Bonnie wanted desperately to change the topic, to assuage her guilt and stop giving the baker the opportunity to puff up his ego. But as luck would finally have it for her, a new topic presented itself.

The side door clicked open, and a boy with long hair touching his also long eyelashes stepped inside. His eyes were the size of a baby's fist, giving him an innocent look. "F***! It's cold outside!" he cursed as he shrugged off his coat and hung it on the coat rack. Bonnie's jaw dropped not expecting such a filthy word to be spoken by a boy who still looked like he was in his early teens. Woohyun chuckled at her suprised expression.

"Sungjong-ah! Watch your mouth. We have a guest," Woohyun admonished, nodding in the direction of Bonnie, who waved at the shivering lad.

Sungjong's face then morphed from a disgruntled expression to an angelic one. "Oh, noona! Sorry! Excuse me."

Woohyun pointed at Sungjong accusingly. "If anybody has a disingenious smile, it's definitely this guy! He's completely two faced!" he exclaimed.

Sungjong, still smiling, gritted his teeth making him resemble more of an animal bearing his fangs than the smiling angel he was a few moments before. "No," he retorted in a soft voice. "You're just bitter because of that stupid article. I told you not to worry about that, hyung. You're daebak," he ended by giving Woohyun a thumb's up.

Woohyun let out a short snort and turned to Bonnie. "Actually he told me that finally someone found out the truth, that I was an awful, lying son of a--" 

"I did not!" Sungjong interrupted forcefully and slapped Woohyun in the arm. Sungjong laughed it off as if he hit the baker softly, but Woohyun's expression said otherwise as he was wincing in pain. His skin where Sungjong had slapped it was growing red. "Woohyun-hyung is a very nice and caring man," the younger said to Bonnie. He then propped his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands. "So who are you? His girlfriend of the week? Hyung's quite the player."

"Yah! Lee Sungjong! Don't lie," Woohyun ordered, baring his teeth. He turned to Bonnie, "He's just joking, right Sungjong-ah?" Sungjong emphatically nodded. "Anyways, Sungjong you already met Tokki-ssi. She's the author of that stupid article."

The innocent smile fell from Sungjong's face and his eyes unconsciously narrowed on Bonnie. This was the first hostile look Bonnie had encountered since entering the bakery, and she felt it was well-deserved for what she wrote. "Oh," he remarked. He paused for a few seconds still studying Bonnie curiously before speaking again, "I should help prepare the tables and stuff." And with that he got up and left the kitchen. Bonnie looked down at the recorder in her hands and sighed. Unlike the rest of the boys at the bakery, Sungjong wasn't so forgiving. _And why should he be?_

Bonnie felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Woohyun giving her a tight-lipped smile. He could see the burden of guilt she was carrying, weighing heavily on here back and shoulders. He hated to admit it, but a small part enjoyed seeing her like this. Because if she felt guilty, then that meant she cares about them, about the shop. "Don't mind Sungjong," he comforted. "Even though he's the youngest, he's very protective of all of us."

Bonnie looked over her shoulder and could see Sungjong wiping the tables in the next room. He looked serious as he drug the cloth on the table. "Is he really the aegyo prince?" she asked, recalling the cutie player he performed cringingly adorably just a few days earlier.

"Oh yea, he's a cuite, alright," Woohyun admitted as he rolled out dough onto the countertop. "You just saw a side of him that he doesn't show most people. He's only like that around people he's close with." 

"You mean him being rude?" Bonnie retorted with a weak smile. She looked over her shoulder again and saw Sungjong glaring in her direction. She immediately turned back around and flinched. For some reason, the death glares coming from someone who looked like an angel made Bonnie feel even worse. Like she made God upset.

Woohyun nodded. "They say that you can only be cruel with the people you love. Sooo he must like you _a lot_." He heard Bonnie giggle softly under her breath. While Sungjong might not particularily like her now, Woohyun's words still held true for the bakery's youngest. In front of the customers and in public, he was cute and charming. But when it was just the five or six of them, Sungjong would hit, curse, and insult them. They were his outlet for his daily frustrations. But even though it seemed like Sungjong was mean to them, they seriously couldn't find a better maknae on the planet. He always did what they asked, no matter how demeaning, and he would die for them. And they would for him.

"Holy f***ing shit! It's f***ing cold out there!" a screech disrupted the silence as a blur ran inside from the side door.

"Yeol-ah! Language!" Woohyun warned, not even lifting his gaze from the dough he was rolling.

"Huh? Why?" the tall man with his windblown hair giving him a handsomely wild look examined his surroundings suspiciously. When his gaze fell on Bonnie, he smiled widely exposing his gums and pointed, "Oh look, a lady!" Then something caught the corner of his eye, the coffee tray with one lone coffee cup resting inside. "And my coffee!" he squealed in delight as he dove towards the cup. "Hello, sweet cup of heavenly goodness and...wait! Only one?" he asked as he turned over the tray as if another cup would miraculously appear underneath it. He looked up at Woohyun with wide eyes. "Did I make Myungie mad? Why does he hate me?" The man looked as if his whole world was crumbling apart. He slumped onto the countertop, completely dejected, and turned his attention back towards Bonnie who was nervously playing with the coffee cup that Myungsoo had given to her moments earlier. "Oh you have it," he exclaimed, pointing at the label on the cup in her hands. "See look: Americano with two sugars. That's what I always get. Now you owe me one." He finished with expectant eyes. 

Bonnie was about to agree with the wild man's demands, but Woohyun stopped the voice in her throat."Yeol, you should get dressed. We'll open soon," he declared wiping the flour off his hands. Woohyun was so used his friend's whirldwind speech and brashness that he forgot that it wasn't normal until he saw the flustered look on Bonnie's face. It made him smile to see her squirm in the presence of the over-stimulatating Lee Sungyeol (well, it gave him pleasure to see a rise out of anybody, but especially this cordial food critic).

"Shit! Is that the time?" the man freaked as he looked at the clock. His round eyes almost took over his face. He immediately jumped up from his seat, coffee glued to his hand, and rushed over to the rack where the black aprons hung.

Once the peculiar man was out of earshot, Bonnie leaned closer to the baker and asked in a hushed tone, “Who is that?”

“That’s Sungyeol,” he quickly responded. He turned to the writer, relishing in her blank expression. He could see the cogs in her mind turning as she was trying to figure out who he was. He stopped what he was doing and watched her as she wrinkled her nose in deep thought. It twitched several times like a bunny's.

“Sungyeol?” she repeated slowly, bringing a finger to her lips.

Sungyeol had heard that one and rushed over as he tied his apron. “You don’t remember me?" he asked in a pained voice. "That’s disappointing and rude. I remember you _Bonnie-ssi_.”

“Sungyeol?" she said again, her eyes scouring his face for the answer. Then the answer flashed into her mind like lightening. "Sungyeol! The smart prince, Sungyeol?” No, it couldn't be. This wild, loud, slightly immature boy couldn't possibly be the shy but good-natured outcast she had met earlier. Bonnie imagined the boy in front of her, wearing those thick frames and wiry hair, a pained smile permanently glued onto his face. It was him, much to her surprise.

“Ah no! I forgot about that," Sungyeol said, immediately recovering from the pain of not being remembered. "That was days ago. I’m going to be the rude chaebol prince today," he said proudly, patting his chest. "Girls love that. There’s one in every single drama. A little hot-and-cold treatment, and they’ll be begging for more. This is probably my best prince yet! I have to go get ready. Yah Lee Sungjong, give me some of your hair gel!” he yelled to the waiter in the next room.

Sungjong didn't even lift his head up from the table he was wiping down. “No, you’re going to use it all like last time.”

“Aish!" Sungyeol cursed as he charged towards the younger and pointed at him accusingly. "You have no respect for your hyungs.”

“I have tons of respect for my hyungs. I have no respect for you,” Sungjong cattily retorted, still ignoring the bull of a man barrelling down at him. Once the older approached him, he put Sungjong into a headlock, but Sungyeol didn't grip on him tight enough, as Sungjong easily slipped through his arms, dropped the rag, and ran across the room.

“Get back here!” Sungyeol shouted, chasing after him.

“Um…" Bonnie hummed as she watched Sungyeol catch up with Sungjong and tackle him onto the ground. "So this is what Sungyeol is really like?”

“Eung," Woohyun responded with a chuckle, watching his friends quarrel as they normally did everyday. He reckoned that Sungyeol owes Sungjong at least 20 things of hair gel by now. He looked at Bonnie whose eyes were glued to the two boys mimicking professional wrestlers. He took a seat next to her and spoke,"Tokki-ssi, remember what I said about the nicknames.”

“Your customers gave them to you,” she recalled.

“Sungyeol’s nickname was the choding prince. And as you can see, it suits him pretty well," Woohyun explained as Sungyeol was hurling insults suitable for a playground at Sungjong. "But he didn’t like it. He didn’t think it was manly. So he changed his image, and then he changed it again and again. At first he was trying to get a new image to stick, but now he sees it as practice.”

Bonnie finally tore her eyes away from the boys and faced Woohyun, “Practice for what?”

“He’s an actor," he replied, picking at the edges of the countertop. "He majored in it at the same university Sungkyu and I went too, and the three of us became friends. He was the star student there. We all thought that he was going to make it big. But after failing handful of auditions after graduation, he lost all confidence that he used to have and just stopped trying." His eyes flittered over to Sungyeol, who had triumphantly tore the hair gel away from the younger and began to slick back his hair, quickly adapting to the image of a chaebol as his gummy smile was replaced by a discontented expression. It was hard for the baker to imagine the same childish boy, crying in the same spot just a year earlier after failing the last audition he went on, vowing to give up acting once and for all. _Liar_. The first round of customers entered in through the doors right as Dongwoo turned on the "Open" sign, and Myungsoo warmly greeted them and showed the older ladies to their seats. "We opened up the bakery shortly after that," Woohyun picked up with his story again. "But he misses acting, as you can see. He takes any opportunity he has to act. It makes him happy.”

“Doesn’t sound much like practice. It sounds more like a hobby,” Bonnie said, fiddling with the recorder again. Woohyun could see her eyelids slowly closing. She was trying hard to stay awake.

“I guess what I meant to say was that I hope it’s practice," Woohyun corrected himself. Then he leaned in closer to Bonnie, and her drooping eyelids snapped wide open. Woohyun smirked as he whispered, "Don’t tell him I said this to you. I don’t want him to get a big head, but Sungyeol has the potential to become a star. I really want him to get back out there and try again. His talent is wasted here.”

Bonnie studied Woohyun's face carefully as he pulled away from her. He was earnest. Sure, Woohyun often made arrogant comments and puffed up his own ego, but underneath all of the bravado was an earnest heart. Someone who really cared for the people around him. She looked back into the dining room and watched the rag-tag group of "Flower Boys" at work, treating the Ahjummahs like royaltly, talking with the customers as if they were their own mothers and aunts. Her eyes fell on Sungyeol, who although wore that snobbish expression on his face, had a cheery glimmer in his eye. “But he looks happy here. That should count for something,” Bonnie concluded.

“Yea, but he takes his roles a step to far sometimes," Woohyun said with a frown and his eyebrows furrowing in concern. "Like I said last night, Sungyeol’s mostly responsible for the bakery’s ‘special service,’ especially when he tried to be the fairy-tale prince and he went around calling everyone ‘princess,’ kissing them on the hand, and made them try on a glass slipper." He couldn't help but to chuckle at the recollection: Sungyeol dressed entirely in white with perfectly straight posture and exaggerated arm/hand movements, the girls fawning over the mysterious prince who would pull them from their seats to dance in the middle of the bakery. But his smile was replaced quickly with that worried expression again, recalling the reprucussions. "The customers liked it so much that the others felt obligated to act the same way.” Even his normally reserved cousin, Myungsoo, started to call the customers 'princess' (fitting his chic and charming image). But the response and the money was good, so it became a habit.

“Thus the ‘special service’ was born," Bonnie dramatically stated. She turned back to Sungyeol who now was angrily throwing fake money at the Ahjummahs, claiming that he didn't serve 'sniveling peasants' (to which all the old ladies squealed in delight and got on thier hands and knees to gather the fake money). Bonnie giggled as she watched the scene, seeing the pleased looks on the Ahjummahs' faces. _They're playing make believe together._ "Wow! The girls really do eat it up!”

“Trust me. He likes the attention that he’s receiving much more than the girls like the attention he’s giving to them." Woohyun said as he took a tray out of the oven and placed it on a cooling rack. "He’s addicted to it.”

Dongwoo rushes up to Woohyun, thrusting his golden head through the opening in the wall connecting the kitchen with the dining room. “Table 3 is requesting a special visit from the heart prince,” he said with a wink. His adopted cousin then returned back to his own tables he was serving.

“Who’s the heart prince?" Bonnie asked, blinking her eyes in thought. She turned towards Woohyun, who automatically turned away sheepishly. Her jaw dropped. "You?! I thought you were the king.”

“I lied," Woohyun plainly stated as he wiped his hands on his grungy apron, then took it off before he left the kitchen.  Bonnie put her head out of the opening as she watched the so-called 'heart prince' at work. And she was not disappointed. Before the baker even reached the table, she saw his steps grow lighter, more joyful, and he called out the the ladies in a cheerful tone. "Aigoo! How are my lovely girlfriends doing today?" The expressions in the ladies' faces morphed into ones of pure delight, looking as if they were getting younger as an innocent blush painted their faces when their 'boyfriend' approached. Woohyun stood by them and gave each of them a hug. "Did you miss me?" he asked, and the women nodded and cooed. He began to rub the shoulders of the eldest at the table (Bonnie reckoned that she had to be close to 80). "It’s getting cold out, so bundle up, okay? I don’t know what I would do if my girlfriends got sick,” he admonished them with a mischevious twinkle in his eye. The women agreed, and Woohyun turned to walk away, saying his goodbyes. Just as Bonnie was wondering if he was called the 'heart prince' for his kind heart, he faced the table again and threw imaginary heart after imaginary heart at the Ahjummahs. Then the other tables began to demand some of his 'affections,' and he gladly gave it to them.

 When all of the tables had their fill and Woohyun's arms could not throw one more heart, he started back towards the kitchen. He saw Bonnie leaning on the opening with an amused smile. Curious to see what would happen, he threw her a heart as well. Bonnie pretended to catch the heart; then she began to study the 'heart' in the palm of her hand, and with a shrug, she put it in her back pocket. “What are you going to do with that?” Woohyun asked with a chuckle.

“I’m going to save it for later," she replied nonchalantly, keeping her eyes on the baker as he reentered the kitchen. "So heart prince?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

 “Okay, so we’re all addicted.”

* * *

When the morning rush died down, Dongwoo turned off the "open" sign and declared the start of their lunch break. Mostly everyone was raiding the refridgerator in the kitchen as they usually do, but one of the boys were missing, Myungsoo. Sungyeol surveyed the kitchen, but his best friend was no where in sight. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the handsome waiter/owner/accountant kneeling in front of a booth eating a sandwich. This being out of the ordinary, even for his fourth-dimensional friend, Sungyeol took it under himself to invesitigate the matter. “Myungsoo, what are you looking at?" he asked as approached the booth. Myungsoo put a finger to his lips, telling him to be silent, and pointed to a lump laying in the booth. Under a pile of coats (including Sungyeol's own coat and what he assumed to be everyone else's), Bonnie was sleeping and snoring away. Sungyeol kneeled next to his friend. "Aw! Look at Tokki-ssi sleeping. She doesn’t look like such a mean little critic now.”

“Why is she here?” Sungjong, who apparently followed Sungyeol to the booth, asked.

“She’s writing another article about us,” Dongwoo answered, who was only a few steps behind the maknae.

Sungyeol grabbed the back of his neck as he threw back his head and groaned. “Another one? What’s she going to do in this one? She already called us shallow and players. Is she going to make us out to be pimps now or—“

“Sh! Not so loud," Dongwoo warned, covering Sungyeol's big mouth with his hand. "You’re going to wake her up.” Dongwoo forcefully pulled Sungyeol away from the booth, not trusting the other to control himself.

“If you thought that she was mean in the article, imagine what it would be like if you woke her up,” Sungjong huffed as he rested his hands on Myungsoo's shoulders, leaning over to get a better look at the food critic.

“She’s actually pretty nice," Myungsoo finally spoke after swallowing the final bites of his sandwich. "We had dinner with her last night.”

Sungyeol escaped from Dongwoo's grasp and stood up. “Nice or not. I want revenge," he dramatically declared, ending with an evil chuckle. He thrusts his hands into his pocket and takes out a sharpie. He uncaps it and begins to walk towards Bonnie with a devious smile painting his face.

But before he could take another step forward, Sungjong through his arm out, stopping him. “No," he said forcefully. He took the sharpie way from the other, who frowned. Sungjong then dug into his own pocket and pulled out a marker of his own. "Use this one. It’s washable.”

Sungyeol took the marker from Sungjong and pouted, “You take the fun out of everything.”

Now Dongwoo was standing in front of Sungyeol and the blank canvas that was Bonnie's face. “Guys, I don’t think we should be doing this," Dongwoo whispered glancing over his shoulder at the stirring writer.

“I’ll let you draw on her first, hyung," Sungyeol bargained, waving the marker in front of the other's face, trying to tempt them.

Dongwoo looked at the marker and then to Bonnie and then back to the marker again as he tore it away from Sungyeol's hands. “Well…okay. It’s washable, right?” 

* * *

Bonnie opened her eyes expecting to see the white ceiling of her bedroom, peppered with glow in the dark stars, but she woke up to find herself in complete darkness and finding herself underneath a pile of coats. She slowly raised herself into a sitting position as she tried to remember where she was, and the coats slowly slipped from her face, allowing her to see where she was. Once she realized it, she laughed. She was still at that handsome-excuse-for-a-bakery and had apparently passed out in a booth. There used to be a time when she could stay up for 2 whole days with a wink of sleep. Now she could barely last 24 hours. Getting older sucked. 

She picked at the 5 coats on her lap as she surveyed her surroundings. She looked out the window and saw that the sky was painted in orange and pink hues. It being winter, she assumed that it meant it was late afternoon. Her palm met with her forehead, and she groaned in disbelief. Bonnie had slept straight through the afternoon rush, the onslaught of the 'girlfriends.' How could she possible sleep through a stampede of giggling school girls, and not to mention, the loud staff members of the bakery itself? She must've slept like the dead, and she felt like the walking dead with a fuzzy head and achy limbs.

She stood up and scooted out of the both. Due to her awkward position in the booth, her legs had falled asleep. And so now she was forced to awkwardly drag her feet across the dining room into the kitchen. Great, now she was walking like a zombie.

Once she reached the kitchen's swinging door, Bonnie cautiously put her head through, not knowing what or who she might find. "Woohyun-ssi?" her voice was just a bunch of raspy whispers at this point.

"Aigoo! Tokki-ssi, did you finally wake up?" Woohyun asked with his head in the fridge. "I was wondering when you were going to. The customers kept asking who the homeless lady was." He pulled his head out from the inside and closed the door. He turned to face Bonnie, and once he laid eyes on her the tupperware (he had just gotten from the fridge) fell from his hands and he burst into side-splitting laughter, opening his mouth wider than he had ever done in Bonnie's presence. But when he finally closed his mouth (partially), Bonnie saw something that she didn't even know that she'd been wanting to see: a real, natural smile on Woohyun's face, and not the practiced smile that she had come to know. She liked this one better.

Bonnie looked around her and saw nothing to induce such laughter or joy, so she could only assume that he was laughing at her, she who just woke up and was doing her best impression as a zombie. And while she could find the humor in that, she didn't think it was funny enough to elicit such a gregarious laugh from the baker. But even inspite of that, she found herself laughing just as loudly along with him. "What's so funny?" she asked as Woohyun collapsed onto the floor, now rolling around. "I look like a zombie, don't I?"

Woohyun waved his hand, shooing off that notion. "No," he responded between gasps. "It's your face." He said slowly getting up, the laughter slowly fading into chuckles. He looked up at Bonnie who was covering her face in embarrassment. He removed her hands away from her cheeks. "It's not what you think," he chuckled. "Come here," he commanded as he drug her by the hand to the mirror hanging on the walls next to the apron rack.

Once she caught sight of her won reflection, Bonnie gasped. Her face looked as if it was covered in a 2 year-old's artwork. A unibrow was drawn across her face, a line of snot down from her nose, hearts on her cheeks, tears from her eyes, and a goatee on her chin. And like an artist signs his work, across her forehead were the words "Sungyeol was here" in thick black ink. "Stupid choding prince," Bonnie murmured under her breath as she licked her hand and furiously scrubbed her face with it. 

"Actually, it wasn't just him," Woohyun said watching in amusement. Bonnie looked over at him with her jaw unhinged. "Ah no not me! I was in the kitchen the whole time!" Woohyun defended himself, and then poked her in the cheek. "I was just gonna say that _this_ is how Soo draws his hearts. And this," he said, pointing at her new unibrow, "says Lee Sungjong all over it."

Bonnie pouted. She expected Sungjong, the death glare prince in her mind, to have taken part in Sungyeol's childish plan, but Myungsoo too? She looked at herself in the mirror again and sighed. What did she expect though? She had been waiting for their revenge and here it was. She just hoped it was washable.

Then she felt something damp swipe across her cheek. Bonnie looked over to see Woohyun rubbing the hearts from her cheeks. "Oh," he gasped. "It's coming off." He smiled until his eyes disappeared. "See, I told you that they liked you. If they hated you, this would've been permanent." Then he resumed cleaning off her cheeks.

Bonnie hung her head and snorted, "They have an odd way of showing that they like someone."

"Well, not everyone can be as mature as me," Woohyun chuckled as he grabbed her chin softly, turning her to the side so that he could wash her other cheek. That made Bonnie explode into laughter. Mature? Nam Woohyun? The man who would inevitably dislocate his shoulder from throwing so many hearts, the man who insisted on calling every single customer whether they were young or old (male or female too, Bonnie wagered) his girlfriend. He wasn't exactly someone Bonnie would call mature. Even Howon seemed more mature than this fellow, even though her brother-in-law was the one who started throw notes over their shared wall. But then again, Bonnie was the one to start the paper airplane war in the office last week, so maybe she herself was just as immature as everyone surrounding her. And that would explain a lot.

Woohyun paused. "What? You don't think I'm manly, Tokki-ssi?" he asked feigning hurt.

Bonnie smirked. "Well, you are a man...but I wouldn't call you manly."

Woohyun put the cloth to her face again and began to scrub Sungyeol's offensive name from her face. The damp cloth now covered her eyes, but Woohyun though it might be better this way because what he was about to ask. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat. "What _do_ you think about me?"

He saw her bit her lips (the only thing the cloth didn't conceal) in thought. "I didn't like you earlier. I thought you were a playboy and a jerk...well, obviously," she commented with a short chuckle. Woohyun's stomach took a plunge. He knew from the article that she'd disliked him, but he didn't know it when to that extent. He unconsciously started to rub her forehead a little harder (okay, so maybe it wasn't so unconscious, and when he saw her wince in discomfort, it would be lying if he said it didn't give him pleasure). "But now...I don't think that anymore."

Woohyun slowly took his hand away from her face. "So what do you think now?" he asked. 

Bonnie paused for a bit. "I'm not sure, but I definitely don't see you as manly," she plainly stated.

Great, once again, Bonnie was wavering in 'like limbo,' toeing the line of like and dislike. Woohyun didn't know whether to consider this a victory, because what it really meant was it was an opportunity for him to win her over again, another battle. He cursed himself and his incessant need to be well-liked by everybody.

"Why don't you smile like that more?" Bonnie asked, breaking into his thoughts. 

Woohyun wrinkled his brow. "What smile?"

"Your real smile," she answered taking the cloth away from Woohyun and proceeded to scrub her chin and lips with it. "I wike it," her voice was muffled by the damp cloth.

"Huh?"

"I like it," she repeated, removing the cloth from her mouth. "It's geniune."

"All my smiles are genuine," he retorted, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards as his spoke. One corner was higher than the other, making it lopsided.

Bonnie's eyes widened, and she poked his cheek. "Oh, there it is."

He turned around and caught his reflection in the mirror. _Oh, that's what she meant by disingenuous._ It was his normal smile, the one he had since he was a kid, but once he grew older and more vain, he also grew to hate that smile. It exposed his crooked bottom teeth, and it was so lopsided that he thought it made him look insane. He had gone through get strides to change it, to make both of the sides even, to hide his crooked teeth, to smile beautifully. "Isn't this ugly?" he said pointing at his natural smile. "You can see my crooked teeth."

Bonnie nodded. "I think that's why I like it. When things are natural, they aren't perfect. When things are perfect, it's unnatural...not real," she answered with a pout, elbowing Woohyun from the mirror as she wiped her chin more vigorously. " 'Scuse me."

Woohyun leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. He cocked his head as he pondered over what she had just said. Was it really that bad that he had changed his smile? That he perfected it? No, it wasn't. Bonnie was the only one to ever complain, to ever dislike it. "What's with you and this 'genuine' thing?" he asked. 

"I don't like liars."

So that was it: an obsession with honesty, with things that were real and raw. Woohyun snorted. "You know, it's okay to tell a lie to make people feel better." Bonnie stopped scrubbing her face and looked at him incredously. Woohyun then pretended to toss his hair and then showed off his figure. "Yeobo, does this dress make me look fat?" he asked in a high pitch voice while batting his eyes. Then he straightened his posture and deepened his voice, "No Honey, you're more beautiful than Venus."

Bonnie scoffed. "But then the girls walks around in an unflattering dress, and she hears whispers of how bad she looks. Then she wishes that her husband would just tell the damned truth." She looked in the mirror again and gave a final swipe under her nose, getting rid of the last traces of the flower boys' revenge. "Lying doesn't work out in the long run."

"That's only because you're not good at it," Woohyun said with a cheeky smile. He could see Bonnie roll her eyes at that remark, but he didn't care. He knew that he was right. Lying is good at times. Without sweet little deceptions there would be no surprise birthday parties or other surprise events, acting in general wouldn't exist, and his bakery too with it's 'special service' wouldn't be as successful as it was. He just wished Bonnie could see how harmless it all was.

"I should be going now," she announced. Then she looked around. "Where did everybody else go? I want to say goodbye."

"At the bars, drinking," Woohyun said finally picking the tupperware off from the floor.

"At 5 in the afternoon?!"

Woohyun chuckled. "We all have the sleep schedule of grandpas. We do everything early. We sleep early, wake up early, eat early, drink early, and even probably shit early too!" 

To his surprise, Bonnie laughed at his immature joke. She began to gather her items into her bag, then walked back into the dining room to retrieve her coat, with Woohyun just a few steps behind. "Why didn't you go with them?"

Woohyun shrugged. "Alcohol is just fermented sugar. I mean, I can drink, don't  get me wrong. But I don't feel like doing damage control with my blood sugar levels. Besides," he began as he stepped in front of Bonnie, grabbing her coat. She automatically turned around, getting used to the baker's manners. He started to put it on her. "Someone needed to watch over the bum that passed out in the booth." Bonnie turned around after the coat was on, and she buttoned up her coat while facing him. Blush spread across her cheeks, and hushed words of apologies fell from her lips. "Are you coming back tomorrow?"

Bonnie nodded. "I want to interview the customers," she explained. She wanted to follow her new theory about the relationship between the staff and their patrons, that the bakery wasn't taking advantage of their feelings but playing with them. And so she needed to know what those teenage girls honestly thought about the flower boys.

After tugging her last button through the hole, she looked up and made eye contact with Woohyun. He was looking at her expectantly, and she looked at him with apprehension in her eyes. How do you say goodbye to someone like Woohyun? Someone you had torn apart with your words but are now slowly making a real and honest connection with? Someone you were starting to like. _Aw! Screw it._ She grabbed Woohyun's hand that was resting at his side. She shook it. "Good night, Woohyun-ssi. I'll see you tomorrow," Bonnie said before turning around and leaving.

"Uh, yes. Good night," Woohyun responded slightly delayed and stunned. Who shook hands anymore? Once he regained composure he shouted after her. "Listen to Papa Woohyun and go to bed, young lady."

"Yer not me Da!"

* * *

Bonnie was sitting in her bedroom at her desk. The tape recording was spewing out the day's conversations, and Bonnie's fingers quickly pecked at the keyboard, transcribing them. After typing in the last few words Sungyeol had shouted into her tape recorder (she had asked him about how he liked working there, and he yelled at her saying that he wasn't going to tell some low-class girl the intimate details of his life, staying true to his chaebol persona), Bonnie reached over to turn off the device, recalling that she had slumped into the booth right after that conversation (Woohyun was right, Sungyeol was more exhausting than Myungsoo and Dongwoo combined). 

But before her fingertips grazed the buttons, she heard a deep voice call out to her from its speakers: "Tokki-ssi, did you know that you snored? Listen!" Woohyun's voice commanded. He had then apparently put the recorder next to her face, and Bonnie could hear her loud snores, sounding like a starving pig. "So loud. The customers are complaining. You should've listened to me, Tokki-ssi."

Bonnie was about to shut it off, not in the mood to hear Woohyun call himself 'Papa Woohyun' again. But once again she was halted by a sound, this time a low, sweet note: "Sleep well, my child, in the garden and on the back hill. Birds and lambs are sleeping. The moon brings silver, and gold beads to the dawn through the night. Sleep well, my child. Sleep well," he sang. A few moments of silence passed, and Bonnie smiled sweetly at the device.

"I told you I sang like a seraphim," Woohyun bragged.

Bonnie immediately shut off the recorder. "Immature lil scamp."

 


	4. The Fourth Tier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woohyun gets familiar with Bonnie.

Soft music wafted through the kitchen, and a low voice accompanied it, following the rise and fall of the melody. It was early morning, and as usual, Nam Woohyun was alone, baking up a storm. He glanced over at the chair across from him. Bonnie had only been with him for one morning, and her company wasn't even that great as she was practically asleep. But Woohyun found himself missing it, just the warmth of an other human body next to him. But now all he could do was bake and wait for Dongwoo to come crashing down the stairs a couple hours later. 

Woohyun was busy kneading the dough with his knuckles, when he heard a knock at the side door. He jumped up, slightly startled at the obtrusive noise. He glanced upwards at the clock. It was 4 in the morning. He frowned in thought as he wiped the flour from his hands and made his way to the door.

"Woohyun-ssi! I'm sorry that I'm late," Bonnie apologized as soon as he opened the door.

"Tokki-ssi," he spoke in shock. "I didn't expect to see you until this afternoon." He stepped aside and allowed her in.

She put a tray with some cups of coffee onto a countertop. "I owe Sungyeol an Americano, so I just decided to get one for everyone," she explained when she caught Woohyun staring at it. She plucked one from the tray and handed it to him.

Woohyun showed his natural smile and accepted the cup with two hands. "Thank you, Tokki-ssi. But," he started but paused a bit before starting again. "If you're just interviewing the customers today, why did you come in so early?" He saw Bonnie immediately freeze as if she did something wrong. "Ah! No! Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the company. I really do. It's just...I didn't expect to see you so early."

Bonnie bit her lower lip. Why did she come again so early in the morning? Was it to get out of the office? Was it because she found herself wide awake at 3 am with nothing else better to do? Was it because she felt guilty because it seemed Woohyun spent every morning alone for the most part? Maybe. But another reason could be that she liked watching him bake. Bonnie found it somewhat relaxing to watch him rhythmically stir, roll, chop, and pour. It was like he was creating his own music. But perhaps one reason trumped them all. "I like to be thorough," she answered while casually sipping her own coffee.

Woohyun chuckled before drinking his own coffee, recalling the moment they first met, when she first spoke those words to him. He wouldn't have been able to predict feeling so comfortable at her side now after her icy and standoff-ish demeanor back then. Maybe this was a sign that Bonnie started to dip her toe into the side of 'like,' no longer teetering on the edge. He felt his old smile creep onto his face.

"I was thinking," Bonnie began. Woohyun looked up from the dough and saw apprehension drawn all over her face. 

"That I'm handsome," Woohyun tried to fill in the blank for her.

"No."

"That...I'm amazing. Didn't you say that last time you saw me baking?" 

Bonnie scoffed. "No!" she defended. Then she waved her hand, dismissing the entire conversation. "Just forget it."

Woohyun pouted. "Tell me," he begged. Bonnie smiled into her cup and shook her head. "Tell me. Tell me. T-t-t-tell me!" he sang while shimming his shoulders.

"No!" Bonnie yelled with a laugh. "Just get back to baking and pretend that I'm not here," she said, twirling the cup in her hands. What she was actually considering was to offer him her services as a food tester. Who else better than a food critic to offer feedback about the product and what the people wanted? But after Woohyun opened his mouth, singing his own praises, she shoved the offer back down her throat. She wouldn't want Woohyun to form some silly notion that she actually _liked_ him. No that's silly. Bonnie didn't like guys like Woohyun, guys who thought deception was okay, whose honeyed words were empty. 

"No offense, Tokki-ssi, but you're pretty hard to ignore," Woohyun said. Bonnie looked up at him and cocked her head. "Especially when you snore. It's impossible to ignore that," he added. Bonnie narrowed her eyes, focusing a death glare on the baker as she drank from her cup of coffee, but his eyes didn't fall onto hers. They were instead focused on the bridge of her nose and her cheeks. It was odd. For a girl who valued things that were real, honest, and natural, she tried really hard to conceal her freckles under thick layers of make-up. 

* * *

"Can I sit with you?" Bonnie asked with a charming smile at a table of 3 teenage girls being waited on by Sungjong (who, much to her surprise, finally softened his gaze on her and even apologized for drawing on her face). The girls looked up at her with blank stares, wondering why a woman her age wanted to sit with them. "I'm with the newspaper, writing an article about the place. I was wondering if I could have an interview with some of the customers."

The girls all looked at each other for a few moments, exchanging words telepathically. "Sure," one of them final spoke with a shrug and scooted over, giving Bonnie a chance to sit.

"Just as long as it's better than that last article about this place," a girl in pigtails huffed. "That bitter old woman."

"Yea, who is she to criticize our Oppas like that?" a girl with a short bob demanded, clenching her fist. Bonnie shifted awkwardly in her seat.

The third girl twirled her curled hair around her finger. "I know! Did you guys sign that petition to get her canned?" she asked. The other two nodded. Bonnie's heart dropped. "Good. She deserves to get the boot for spreading rumors."

"No one with half a brain believes it anyways. True fans stay true, especially when nasty rumors and articles crop up," the bobbed girl spoke."What's your name again?" the she asked Bonnie.

Bonnie's throat clenched. These three girls were just talking murderously about her. She was afraid to reveal her identity lest the girls might leap over the table and attack her. The flower boys were very idol-like, and she wouldn't be surprised if they had some sasaeng fans in their midst. And it would be just her luck to pick the one table full of them.

She sighed (or whimpered) and was about to divulge her name when someone called to her, "Tokki-noona!" Sungjong cheerfully spoke. Bonnie jumped up, still not used to Sungjong quickly alternating from a cute prince to his normal some-what abrasive self.

"Yes, Sungjong-ssi," she responded.

"Noona," Sungjong said with a pout."I told you to drop the formalities, and be friends." She could hear the girls next to her whine, wanting him to say words like that to them. And Sungjong had told her earlier to drop the formalities, but Bonnie had thought it was an attempt to make the others jealous with their 'closeness' (which ultimately had worked because Sungyeol started to argue that she liked him better because she bought him an Americano, but then Dongwoo pointed out that she had bought coffee for all of them so she liked them equally, that's when Myungsoo pointed out he had one extra sugar in his coffee because Bonnie must've thought he was sweet...needless to say, endless bickering ensued, and Bonnie concluded that the boys really needed to hang out with more girls of their own age for a change).

"Ah right, Sungjong-ie. Sorry," she responded. The girls by her side now whispering to each other, speculating their relationship.

"Anyway," Sungjong started. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm not working this table anymore. I'm handing it over to our part-time worker. Bye," he said with a wink before he left. The girls started squealing.

"Oh okay, thank you," Bonnie said as she turned back around. Then a sudden realization struck her. Woohyun had never mentioned a part-time server before, and he had said that only friends and family worked there. Did she really not meet them all already? "Wait! What part-time worker?" she asked the young waiter, but he was already gathering orders from another table. She faced the girls who were fanning themselves and pulling out their mirrors to fix their hair and faces. Bonnie studied them. From their reaction, she wagered that the girls knew exactly who the mysterious flower boy was, and he appeared to be someone special to warrant fresh layer of make-up. "Who is this part-time guy?"

"He only works here on some weekends and holidays. I can't believe we actually caught him," the bobbed girl curtly replied, straightening her bangs perfectly.

"It's the Energy Prince," the girl with curly hair answered as she dabbed lipstick onto her lips. 

“Seriously?" Bonnie asked raising an eyebrow. She looked around behind her and saw what she was looking for. Dongwoo was in front of a table, erratically popping and locking as he put cakes unto the table. "There’s someone even more energetic than that?!" she said in shock, pointing at Dongwoo who was now bouncing like a kangaroo.

The girls put down their mirrors, looked at each other, and then burst into laughter. Now Bonnie was completely lost, staring at the girls who laughed at her like she just said the sky was green. She pursed her lips, searching for the right question.

“Hello friends, how are you doing today?” a familiar voice sounded from behind her. _No, it couldn't be_.

“Oppa!” the girls exclaimed in unison.

Bonnie slowly turned around in her chair and met face to face with the last person that she had expected to find. Her boss, her office crush, was standing right in front of her in a crisp white button down and a black apron. And his hair, it was styled in a way found in magazines and t.v. shows (he undoubtedly had stolen hair gel from Sungjong as well).“Sung-sungkyu-ssi?” she stuttered. 

“Oh, Bonnie-ssi!”

* * *

“So you help out Woohyun-ssi during the weekends,” Bonnie repeated what Sungkyu had just explained.

After finishing a short interview with the three girls, she and Sungkyu relocated to a booth in the corner of the dining room. And he immediately began divulging the truth, exposing that his friendship with Woohyun was more than your typical hyung-dongsaeng relationship; they were best friends. Now, Sungkyu's insistance that Bonnie redo the article made complete sense. Not only had she attacked his best friend, but the other flower boys were his close friends too. But she didn't blame him or accuse him of being biased any longer; she would've done the same for Aine or even Howon.

“And whenever he needs an extra hand, like Valentine’s Day," he said while crossing his arms. Bonnie looked up at him and cocked her head. She recalled Sungkyu taking off every Valentine's Day since she started at the newspaper, but Howon had told her it was probably because he was spending all day with his girlfriend(s). Little did they both know, that he was spending it with his best friends, delivering cakes to depressed girls without Valentines. _Maybe I should come here this year?_

“But, you’re the head editor. How do you find the time?” she asked.

Sungkyu looked up at the ceiling and pondered before answering, “You make the time for friends. Besides, I owe a lot to Woohyun. He’s given me a lot of support over the years. This is the least I can do.”

He owes Woohyun. Bonnie wagered that that could range from returning a simple favor all the way to blackmail (which she wouldn't put past the baker). It was obvious Woohyun had this undeniable hold over her boss that piqued an insatiable interest in her. Finding out more details of their relationship would reveal a lot more about the both of them. 

“Tokki-ssi? Tokki-ssi, where did you go?" someone called out to her. Bonnie didn't need to turn around to know whose deep voice that was. "Oh HYUNG! I didn’t see you come in. How’s it going?” Woohyun exclaimed as he rushed over to their booth. His face automatically brightened after catching sight of his best friend.

Sungkyu's face too was illuminated. “I’m good. Work hasn’t been busy. It’s a lot less quiet without Bonnie-ssi there the last couple of days," he answered and gave Bonnie a daring wink. She felt her cheeks grow hot. Then she felt her body being moved. Woohyun had pushed her inside the booth as he slid in next to her.

“Why?" he asked jovially. Then he put a hand on Bonnie's shoulder. "Does Tokki-ssi cause a lot of trouble?”

Sungkyu stared curiously at Woohyun's hand resting on his writer's shoulder. He smirked and answered, “No, she just comes into my office a lot.” Bonnie who was hanging her head in embarrassment, automatically snapped her head up. What was Sungkyu saying? She wasn't surprised by the accusation that she was loud (she and Howon tended to cause a ruckus when together), but she did not visit Sungkyu's office as much as he was implying. At the most, she would visit his office twice a week. What was he doing?

Woohyun didn't know that, and his eyes darted back and forth between the two. “But why would she…”

“Woohyun-ssi!" Bonnie exclaimed turning towards him and grabbed his shoulder, desperate to get the attention off of her and her boss."Why were you looking for me?”

It worked. “Oh yea. I made new cakes that I would like you to try,” Woohyun answered facing Bonnie. So he had the same idea that Bonnie did earlier. She felt a small smile creep on her face, seeing how much they thought alike.

Sungkyu cocked his head. “Doesn’t Dongwoo normally do that?”

“Why use Dongwoo when I have a perfectly good food critic at my disposal?" Woohyun said sliding out of the booth, grabbing Bonnie by the hand and pulling her out with him. "Come on, Tokki-ssi. Bye Gyu!” Woohyun bid his best friend farewell as he drug the writer back into the kitchen with him.

Once they reached the kitchen, Woohyun planted Bonnie into her seat. “So Sungkyu-ssi helps out sometimes?” she asked, settling into her seat.

“Mhmm,” the baker plainly responded as he cut a thick slice from the cake he had just made. He put it on a plate and put it in front of Bonnie with a fork.

Bonnie looked up at him, not even acknowledging the dessert. “Why?”

Woohyun sat across from her and put the fork in her hand. “Eat the cake, and I’ll tell you," he bargained.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and portioned out a small bite onto the fork. She quickly put the fork in her mouth and exaggeratedly ate the bite, showing that she was going through her end of the bargain grudgingly. “There. Happy?" she growled. Woohyun nodded happily. But then the flavor hit her tongue, and her tastebuds were overly excited. This cake wasn't like his other desserts which were average to say the least. It was special, something she had never tasted before. She was intrigued. "Wow! This is really good. Is there orange zest in here?” she said excitedly, politely covering her mouth as she spoke.

The baker leaned in and smiled .“Nothing gets past you. What else do you taste?”

Bonnie put down the fork, leaned back, and smacked her lips, still trying to taste the remnants in her mouth. “Hmm…there’s some spice. Nutmeg?" she asked, putting her elbows on the countertop, returning to her original position. Woohyun nodded and joined her, placing his own elbows on the countertop. "There’s something else," Bonnie pondered aloud, putting a finger to her lips. Woohun leaned in closer anticipating her answer. "Avoidance," she abruptly said, clanging her fork down. Woohyun sat up straight and pouted. "Why does Sungkyu-ssi work here?”

Woohyun turned his head away from her, looking at Sungkyu in the next room. “Because he’s a good friend. This is what friends do for each other," he answered. His eyes flickered back to Bonnie who was now watching his best friend gather the order from the giggling gang of school girls. He had just baked her a cake, the one recipe he had been itching to try for days, one that he thinks could be quite successful, but Bonnie had just brushed it aside. So he'll do the same to her. "Why do you care?” he mumbled.

Bonnie immediately turned towards the baker and smiled earnestly. “Because he’s my boss. And he’s a good boss, so I care about him," she said with a shrug. Then she glanced down at the table, gliding her finger along the smooth surface. "Plus, Sungkyu-ssi says that he owes a lot to you. It kind of piqued my curiosity.”

“Really?" _Who is she more interested in? Me or him?_ Woohyun asked himself. _Better yet, why do I care?_ He knew the answer to that one already. Bonnie intrigued him. She was interesting. She was pretty. He wanted to keep her around him, not only for those reasons but things were oddly comfortable with her. Bonnie seemed to fit well into the bakery ever since she strapped on those rubber gloves and washed their dirty dishes days ago. Having Sungkyu there was just a reminder that she wasn't there to stay; she had a job, a life, to get back to...with Sungkyu.

Woohyun looked at Bonnie and shrugged, "I really didn’t do much. Just whenever he spent late night at the newspaper office, I would stop by with food and stay with him for awhile. Gyu-hyung doesn’t take good care of himself on his own. So I watch over him.”

A cheeky smile spread across the writer's face. “Like a mom?...Or boyfriend?”

He chuckled and dismissed her comments with a wave of his hand. “Like a guardian angel. I practically have a halo I shine so brightly!" he exclaimed waving his arms around his head. Bonnie snorted, trying to contain her laughter. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his hyung cap the pen, finished taking orders. This was it. His chance to show what kind of person her boss truly was. "But don’t let hyung fool you," he spoke immediately garnering Bonnie's attention. "He said that he’s just here for me, but he’s as much as an addict as the rest of us. Watch.”

Over in the dining room, Sungkyu turned away from the table with a short bow of his head and a few courteous words. After taking, one, two, three steps away from the said table, he quickly spun around and blew the girls a kiss (who automatically pretended to faint). Bonnie's jaw dropped. Did her boss, her strict, no-nonsense, mature (well, when he wasn't on the phone with his mommy) boss really just blow the table a kiss? And he either simultaneously have something in his eye, or he had also winked at the girls. Stunned, she was utterly stunned. She couldn't even register Woohyun hysterically laughing at her reaction.

Sungkyu turned towards the source of the insane laughter and saw his friend, cracking up, hitting his employee whose jaw was unhinged. He chuckled to himself. “Huh? What?" he said to Bonnie. She snapped out of her daze and snapped her jaw shut. "You want one too?” her boss asked as he brought his fingers to his lips, preparing to blow her a kiss.

“N-no!” she shouted and crouched down, out of his line of vision.

Woohyun smiled as he looked down at her, head touching her knees.“Why are you smiling?” Sungkyu asked him, cocking an eyebrow.

“Nothing, hyung," Woohyun answered with a smile. Sungkyu then left, but the baker's smile didn't. Bonnie had rejected her boss's kiss, but just yesterday she had accepted his heart and put it in her pocket for safe keeping. After reveling in this small victory for a few moments, he looked down again, but Bonnie was no longer crouching on the floor. She was back in her chair staring at the rest of the cake, her eyebrows knitted together and her stare intense. "You know, you can have more,” Woohyun joked.

“Huh?”

“You’re looking at the rest of the cake like you’re trying to get it to telekinetically move it from the plate into your mouth,” he responded with a half-hearted chuckle.

Bonnie frowned and shook her head. “I am _not_! I’m just exhibiting self-control,” she retorted, pushing the plate away from her.

Now Woohyun shook his head. “No, you’re torturing yourself," he argued. He then grabbed the fork lying right next to her plate, doled out a large portion of cake, and put it up against her tight lips as he said, "Here. I’ll put you out of your misery.”

The writer just turned her head away. “No thank you. I’m full,” she replied in a polite tone, but her stomach wasn't so polite. It angrily grumbled, filling up the silence between the two of them. Bonnie faced him and smiled sheepishly.

“Right," Woohyun said with the roll of his eyes. "Come on, just eat it. You’re too skinny anyway.” He tried to get the prongs of his fork to push through her pursed lips.

Bonnie suddenly stood up, causing Woohyun to drop the fork. The look in her eye, the hurt, it made his stomach feel heavy. “I really wish you wouldn’t say things like that," she growled through her teeth. She then unclenched her teeth and bowed to the man. "Excuse me. I have to…I have to go,” she quietly stuttered, backing quickly out of the swinging door. Her shoulders brushed past Sungyeol who happened to be walking into the kitchen at the same time.

Sungyeol's eyes darted between the two. “What’s her problem?" he asked as he walked towards the baker. Then his eyes fell on the cake on the countertop. He pointed to it. "Was it the cake?" Without waiting for Woohyun to respond, he grabbed the plate and stuffed a large bite into his mouth, which immediately morphed into a scowl. He quickly put the plate back down and stepped away. "It definitely was the cake," he stated, smacking his lips trying to rid his mouth from the offending taste. "What is that in there? Is that orange? Who does that?”

Woohyun wasn't in the mood for the over-zealous waiter now. He grabbed the plate about to take a bite of it himself, but then remembered he couldn't. He pushed the plate away and sighed. “A lot of people actually. You just have an unsophisticated palate,” he ended with a light insult.

“Hey, my palate is just fine! Your palate is…stupid,” Sungyeol stuttered out his own comeback. They stared at each other silently for a few seconds before breaking into laughter.

“Good thing you aren’t being the smart prince today. You wouldn’t be able to convince anybody," Woohyun joked as Sungyeol went to grab a drink from the fridge. The baker watched his tall friend carefully. Sungyeol's hair wasn't in a weird style, there were no traces of make-up on his face, no accessories cluttered about his person, and his expression was oddly natural. Woohyun cocked his head. "Who are you trying to be today anyways?”

His friend looked at him oddly. “Sungyeol,” he curtly answered and then took a swig from a milk carton.

“Sungyeol…the  charismatic prince?" Woohyun asked trying to guess at the actor's role. Sungyeol smiled in realization and shook his head. "The sporty prince? The prince…prince?” Woohyun was quickly running out of ideas. Normally he could guess Sungyeol's role right off the bat, but as he was now, Sungyeol could possibly be anything.

Sungyeol chuckled and put the carton back in the fridge. “No. Just Sungyeol. Lee Sungyeol,” he said, leaning up against the fridge.

“The choding prince,” Woohyun clarified.

“Yea," Sungyeol replied. "Sometimes, it's nice just to be yourself.” Something caught his eye, another cake on the countertop, and he began to make with way towards it.

Oblivious to his friend's distracted mind, Woohyun was still reflecting on what Sungyeol just said. It was actually mature. Maybe the choding nickname didn't really suit him. Did Sungyeol finally grow up? “Wow, Yeol, that’s…”

“OH MY GAWD!" Sungyeol squealed as he hastily scrapped the cake from his tongue, unfurled from his mouth.  He grimaced and pointed threateningly at the cake he had just eaten. "This cake is horrible! Why does it burn when I eat it?”

Woohyun was a bit lost, slowly realizing what had just happened. “It's chipotle infused chocolate,” he muttered in a dazed voice.

“Why would you ever want to do a thing like that?! Do you want to kill our customers?!" he yelled. Then Sungyeol dramatically collapsed on the floor. His whole body felt as if it was on fire, and he couldn't stand the pain. At that moment, Sungjong entered into the kitchen and carelessly stepped over Sungyeol's body as if it just were a puddle. "Yah! Lee Sungjong!" Sungyeol huskily croaked trying to get the maknae's attention. "Get me some water!”

Sungjong didn't even turn around or flinch. He just kept walking over to the fridge. "Get it yourself. You have legs."

"Yah! Your hyung is dying here," Sungyeol barked.

Woohyun saw an evil smile creep onto the youngest's lips. "Good," Sungjong snapped back.

Sungyeol mumbled some obscenities under his breath as he jumped up and pounced onto Sungjong's back like a screaming howler monkey. Well, maybe Sungyeol still had a bit more growing up to do.

* * *

The bake shop was finally clear of all of the boy-crazed patrons, and there was a certain stillness that fell over the establishment. The flower boys were slowly closing up shop, and Bonnie had settled herself in a booth gathering her notes and such. It was strange how comfortable the sudden silence was, after the loud commotion of the day's activities (and squealing girls). They were used to it by now. But along with the silence came a feeling of solace, which was probably the reason why Myungsoo was sticking closely to Sungyeol's side, both of them wiping down a single table together. After being surrounded by people all day, the boy wasn't ready to be alone quite yet.

But the eerie silence was disrupted by the familiar ring of their door's bell, announcing that someone had just entered the shop. The shop which they had just closed. Sungyeol turned his head about to politely cuss out the person and alert them to the non-openness of the shop, but his voice stopped in his throat. There at the door was the most beautiful girl that he had ever laid eyes on, a goddess on earth. She was small and petite, but still had that coveted S-line. Her eyes were round like his own and glistening. Her cheeks were also much like his own, slightly chubby and completely pinchable. Suddenly Sungyeol's mind was bombarded by the image of children running about her, three children with chubby cheeks and round owl eyes, their future children. Okay so Sungyeol's mind was getting ahead of itself, but he couldn't help it. This was his dream girl. 

Sungyeol hit his best friend a couple of times on his shoulder. " Myung...Myung. Look over there!" he commanded pointing in the direction of the goddess.

Myungsoo lifted his dark eyes and stared in the direction of Sungyeol's finger. He jaw dropped. "Wow!"

"I know," Sungyeol mumbled dreamily and proudly. "That's my dream girl." Then he straightened up his black apron and smoothed out his hair. "How do I look?" he asked with a nervous smile.

"Handsome," Myungsoo answered.Sungyeol's face brightened up, but Myungsoo's expression grew cheeky."But I'm more handsome."

The boys looked at each other wordlessly, eyes narrowing. Sungyeol's finger twitched at his side, imagining him and Myungsoo in the Old West facing each other for a good old cowboy shoot out. But instead of a gun in his holster, the waiter had a pen and a pad of paper in his apron's pocket. Close enough.

Myungsoo was getting into character as well, widening his stance, also reaching for the pad and pen in his pocket (This girl was exactly his type too. He had a penchant for round, baby-like cheeks. He liked how squishy they felt). Both of them just waiting for the other to move. Then Sungyeol saw the first sign of movement. With a quick raise of Myungsoo's eyebrow, they both darted off in the direction of the unsuspecting girl. The boys struggled against each other, pushing and shoving, sprinting. But Sungyeol had one advantage, his long limbs that could carry him twice as far. And Myungsoo had a disadvantage, his clumsiness. The handsome boy face-planted just two steps before the 'finish line.'

Sungyeol arrived in front of the woman, panting and with a smile so wide that his face was about to rip in half. "Hello, miss," he managed to get out. "May I show you to a table? Are you alone or..."

Another person entered through the door, a man. Sungyeol automatically frowned. Who was this short guy who looked like Jjang-goo? The man put his arm protectively around the goddess and brought her closer to his chest. There was a golden glint shining from his ring finger. "She's with me, right yeobo?" the man said sternly, but smiled sweetly to the woman.

"Eung!" the woman returned her husband's smile. She turned back towards now gloomy Sungyeol, but she didn't seem to notice his recent roller-coaster ride of emotions. She smile and cutely asked, "I'm looking for BonBon. Oops hehe. I mean, Choi Bonnie. Is she here still?"

"Oh yea, she is," Sungyeol mumbled, trying hard not to frown. He turned to face the booth where the writer had planted herself (Woohyun had also snuck himself into the booth with her, and they appeared to be in a deep conversation). "Ya! Tokki-ssi!" Sungyeol yelled. Both the writer and the baker turned around. "Some pretty lady and her okay looking husband are looking for you!" (A/N: italics are for when they speak in English)

"Hm?" Bonnie said, slipping out of the booth. " _Oh Aine! Aine what are you doing here_?" she asked running over to and then embracing her little sister. Woohyun was trailing just a few steps behind her.

Aine had a concerned look on her face. " _It's our Ma's birthday. I hope ya didn't forget_?"

" _Blimey_!" Bonnie exclaimed, smacking the heel of her palm against her forehead.

Aine playfully hit her sister, shocked. " _Bon! How could ya forget_?"

" _I didn't,"_ Bonnie tried to defend herself. Aine looked at her skeptically. _"Well, not really. It just slipped me mind_. Hello, Hoya," she greeted her brother in law.

Howon smirked. "Now you notice me," he scoffed. "We're having dinner at 6, so that should be enough time to buy the gift you forgot."

"I didn't forget!" Bonnie yelled again, but this time in Korean.

The three family members were oblivious to Woohyun, Sungyeol, and Myungsoo (who had gotten up awhile ago unbeknownst to everybody) standing around them. The other two had lost interest and eventually left to wash tables together again, but Woohyun was rooted to the spot. He recognized the sport's writer, but who was this other girl? They had talked about a mother. Were they sisters? Woohyun's eyes curiously scanned the newcomer's face. Her eyes were the same shape and shade of Bonnie's, and their noses were also the same. The resemblance was undeniable, and with a unique look like Bonnie's, the only logical explanation for such a resemblance would be blood-relation. Also the why Bonnie looked at and interacted with the other woman was endearing, but also emitted a protective vibe. She must have been the elder.

The two girls were speaking in what vaguely sounded like English. But their was a certain trill to their words and a musicality in their tone that couldn't be heard in any American English that the boys were used to listening to. Despite the limited vocabulary Woohyun had when he learned English in high school, he was able to get the gist of the sisters' conversation: it was Tokki's mother's birthday. "Do you guys already have a cake?" Woohyun inserted himself into the conversation. The three snapped their heads to look at him and he automatically felt put on the spot. He smiled nervously. "I would be more than honored to make you one, especially for Tokki-ssi's mother."

"Actually we were--" Howon began to speak but his wife's small hand covered his mouth, muffling his words.

"I don't think we do, right Hoya?"Aine spoke with an innocent smile as her hand clamped tightly over her husband's mouth. Aine looked towards Woohyun. "WE'D be more than honored if you baked us a cake. Bonnie told us that you were great. Ma likes carrot cake. Can you make that?" Woohyun nodded without hesitation.

Howon finally tore his wife's hand from his mouth and looked at her completely confused. "But weren't we just about to--"

Aine scanned her surroundings, quickly looking for something to distract Howon, to stop him from telling everybody that they were just about to pick up a cake from another bakery. And that would be just plain rude to say aloud. Then her eyes found what they were searching for. "Hey Hoya! Isn't that your boss? You should go say hi," she asked nodding in the direction of Sungkyu who was putting chairs onto the tables.

Howon chuckled, and there was a mischievous glint in his eye as he faced his co-worker. "So he followed his pet all the way here," he said quietly enough that only the two of them could hear.

"More like followed his other pet," Bonnie whispered back with a groan. Howon cocked his head. "Sungkyu-ssi is Woohyun-ssi's best friend," she clarified.

Howon looked over at his boss again and smirked. "I should probably say hello...and take some photographic evidence for blackmail. Be right back," he spoke and walked off to greet his boss (who was completely caught off guard and begged the sports writer to not tell anybody else).

With her husband safely gone, Aine crept up closer to Bonnie and Woohyun. "So this is Nam Woohyun, eh? Aren't you going to introduce me?" she asked with an innocent tilt of her head. But Bonnie was all too familiar with that look; her little sister was plotting something behind those 'innocent' eyes.

Regardless of her suspicions, Bonnie still gave into the request. "Oh right, Woohyun-ssi," she said, gripping onto his shoulders and gesturing towards Aine. "This is my little sister, Aine."

Woohyun stepped forward and gave Aine the praticed smile that made Bonnie cringe. "Nice to meet you Aine-ssi," he said with a bow.

"Likewise," Aine responsed. "And who are all of these guys?" she asked gesturing around to the flower boys that appeared to sprout around Bonnie. Apparently Sungyeol and Myungsoo had regained their interest in Aine after her husband left, and Sungjong and Dongwoo followed them, curious about the commotion.

Bonnie looked around her, shocked that the boys seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She introduced them one by one. "Ummm..this is Lee Sungyeol. Kim Myungsoo and Jang Dongwoo, they're Woohyun's cousins. And this cutie is Lee Sungjong." They all bowed and smiled politely (except for Sungyeol who grumbled that Bonnie hadn't said more about him than just his name).

"Wow! You're all very handsome," Aine cooed with a clap of her hands.

"Thank you!" Myungsoo and Sungyeol yelled out in unison, and then proceeded to glare at each other, still vying for the girl's attention. Bonnie looked at the two, laughing at herself. This was the usual effect that her little sister had on men. She had some sort of charisma, alluring them like a siren. Bonnie even caught Woohyun looking at Aine. She was the pretty sister. 

"I have a great idea!" Aine announced. "Let's take a picture! You need one for the article, right? Let's just take one now." 

* * *

Despite Bonnie's objections that they should just wait until the newspaper's photographer came to do it himself, Aine was adamant and stubborn, standing her ground and forcing her older sister out the door so that she could take a picture of them all in front of the establishment. And as luck would have it, Myungsoo had a professional grade camera, which he reluctantly lent to Aine, watching her with hawk eyes. 

Bonnie stood next to Howon and her sister, who was adjusting the lens (Myungsoo was wincing seeing his precious camera being in such callous hands). She sighed; it was useless to fight against her sister. Meanwhile, the boys were deciding their poses, all except for one. "Why am I in the photo?" Sungkyu whined as Woohyun dragged him to the picture.

"Don't deny it, hyung. You're one of us," Dongwoo chimed in settling into his own unique pose.

"Hoya-ssi!" Woohyun called out to the sports writer.

Howon looked around stunned (partially because he didn't expect the baker to call him by his nickname). "Me?"

"Didn't you want to be an honorary flower boy? Come take the picture with us," Woohyun goaded.

Howon blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, obviously flattered by the sentiment."Well..."

"Just go, honey," Aine commanded, seeing that her husband was dying to but just needed that extra push.

"Okay," Howon was easily 'persuaded' to join the flower boys. Woohyun pulled him in between Sungkyu and himself, placing his arms around the sports writer's shoulders, who (to Bonnie's surprise because Howon didn't open up to people easily) allowed him to do so.

"1, 2, 3, Smile!" Aine commanded. After snapping the photo, she looked at it and smiled proudly. "You guys look great!" she praised. Curious, Bonnie looked over her sister's shoulder to see the photo.

Bonnie thought the picture was a perfect representation of the boys. Sungjong, in the back, was wearing his slight scowl that only a few privileged people could see, making him look more mature and sensible than his hyungs. Sungyeol, on the other hand, beaming cheerfully and innocently, with his mouth hanging wide open (Bonnie was pretty sure that was telling Aine to take the 'god damn picture already' through his smiling teeth). Then, on the other side was Sungkyu, who had finally decided to shed his authoritative shell that Bonnie was used to seeing, exposing himself as a guy who was just as immature and fun-loving as the rest of them. The brothers, Myungsoo and Dongwoo, had their arms around each other, smiling almost identical smiles, showing off their closeness to one another. Bonnie giggled. Howon and his child-like expression fit in so flawlessly with the six of them. Maybe he should become one of them.

But Bonnie could not tear her eyes away from the man almost in the center of the photo, with an arm around his adopted cousin and another around her brother-in-law, a man's whose smile outshone the rest, who looked the happiest of them all. 

"How about one with you and the flower boys, Bon? You know, to commemorate your time here," Aine suggested nudging her sister with her elbow.

Bonnie looked at her like she was crazy. "It's only been 3 days," she stated. That fact felt strange. It had only been just three days since she started shadowing the bakery, opening her heart towards the boys. But she felt as if she'd known them for much longer. They even started to develop inside jokes and banter. Her harsh review printed less than a week ago, was a distant memory in all of their minds. But then again, it had been three days. Probably 2 days too long for conducting an investigation into the bakery. Her job was technically done, finished today. Her time at the bakery over. A sudden wave of sadness washed over her.

"Come on, Tokki-noona! You can standby me," Sungjong called her from her gloom.

"Yea, come on Tokki-ssi!" Sungkyu yelled out with a giggle. Bonnie looked at him incredously. Her boss had morphed into a completely different person. _You too, Sungkyu-ssi? When did I stop becoming Bonnie?_ Hardly anyone had called her by her birth name anymore. She slowly walked over. The  boys shuffled themselves around, making room for the new comer and switching positions. Bonnie took a spot on the fringe of the group, with Sungjong crouching in front of her, opting now to show off his cute side, and Woohyun at her side.

"Bon! You're out of the frame!" Aine complained with a stamp of her foot. Bonnie felt an arm sneak around her waist and pull her in closer. She looked to the side and saw Woohyun smiling at her, showing his crooked bottom teeth. "Perfect!" her sister announced. Bonnie quickly returned her gaze back to the camera. "1, 2, 3! SMILE!"

In that picture, Woohyun's smile was just as big, but he didn't look like the happiest person in the picture anymore. He did, however, give Bonnie a set of bunny ears.

* * *

Woohyun was putting the final touches on the birthday cake. He thought about how fitting it was that Tokki's mother would prefer carrot cake. He wondered if Bonnie had inherited her bunny nose from her mother. In fact, after seeing her sister, Woohyun's curiosity was more insatiable than ever. Which parent was the foreigner? Where were they from? How long have they lived here for? Hoya-ssi is Bonnie's brother-in-law? How long have they been married? Was Bonnie married? No...Woohyun was pretty sure she wasn't. But did she have a boyfriend? A fiance? Was she even interested in boys?

"Dang it!" Woohyun's hand slipped when his mind was busied with these incessant questions. The icing flower he was making looked like it was wilting now, sad. It looked fitting to him. It was like Bonnie said to him earlier: natural looking things aren't perfect. Maybe it looked more real this way.

"You almost done?" Bonnie suddenly appeared at his side, and Woohyun jumped up, squeezing the icing bag hard and some sweet frosting exploded onto his hand. 

"Tokki-ssi? How did you get in? I didn't hear you knock."

Bonnie placed some bags onto the countertop (she had left to do some last minute shopping, undoubtedly buying her mother a gift). "Um," she mumbled sheepishly. "The door was unlocked." She probably shouldn't have let herself in. Where were her manners? This wasn't her own home!

The baker didn't mind. Not at all. He was busy placing the cake carefully into a box. "Almost done." He closed the box and tied it shut with twine. "There! All done!" he announced proudly. "Did you get a gift for your mom?"

Bonnie nodded, hiding her embarrassed visage in the collar of her pink peacoat."I got her her favorite bottle of whiskey. Cost me a small fortune, but she's worth it."

Woohyun chuckled. "You love your mom?" Bonnie nodded, her head still hidden behind the pink wool. Only her small, twitching nose peaked over, which reminded the baker of at least five of his questions. "Which is it? Your mom or your dad?"

Either Bonnie could follow the baker's strange line of thought, or she was all too used to this question. "My mother," she answered. "She was born in Ireland, but came to Korea when she was 16 with her father as a missionary. She met my dad, and the rest is history."

"Oh!" It made sense now, the strange melodic cadence in their English, the red hair, the freckles. Did her mother have those too? He looked up to Bonnie who was now trying to struggle with the bags and the cake box. "Whoa! Let me help you with that. You're going to drop it." He picked up the box before she could object. But she didn't complain. She wasn't so prideful to deny help.

"Thank you," she said, opening up the side door for the baker. "My car is just over there."

Once he reached her car, Bonnie opened up her passenger side door and gestured to Woohyun to place the box inside. Woohyun looked inside the car and shook his head. "You want me to put it on the seat? What if it falls?" he complained. Bonnie opened her mouth to object but he cut her off. "Don't tell me that you're going to buckle it in. I worked hard on this! I don't want you to smush it." 

"What do you want to do? Ride with me?" Bonnie suggested as if it was absurd.

"Let me get my coat!"

* * *

"Well.." Bonnie started after pulling her car into her driveway. She stared at Woohyun who was clutching onto the cake box. What was she supposed to do with him now?

"I'll carry it to the door," Woohyun said unbuckling his seatbelt and bolting out of the door before Bonnie could say otherwise. Bonnie just rolled her eyes. She knew what was about to happen, right as her front door would open. Because her mother was a little...too friendly. Woohyun would be lucky if he could leave after once stepping inside the house. The last boy to step inside the house was Howon, and now he was married to Aine, a part of their family. He had no idea what he was getting himself into.

Bonnie followed him to her door. Woohyun avoided her gaze, looking at the box in his hands. She knocked on the door once, and before she could knock on it a second time, it swung open to reveal a 50 year-old woman with wiry red hair and pale skin bespeckled with brown flecks. And just like Woohyun had suspected, their tiny noses were just the same. The old woman immediately embraced her daughter. " _Happy Birthday Ma_!" Bonnie greeted, hugging her mother back almost as tightly.

Her mother released her and finally noticed the strange boy on her doorstep. " _Bon, who is this fella_?" she asked, but before her daughter could answer, Mrs. Choi pulled Woohyun inside. " _It's nippy out there, dear. Come inside. Is this fer me? Thank you_!" she spat out quickly and grabbed the cake from his hands. She then leaned over to her daughter and whispered into her ear. " _He's staying fer supper, innit he?_   _Grand! The more the merrier. But why didn' ya tell me you were invitin' some one? I woulda dressed a wee bit more appropriate. He's handsome._ " And with that, she left the two stranded in the hallway.

"You're mom's nice. I couldn't really understand her, but" he said with a chuckle.

"Good because you're staying for dinner," Bonnie retorted crossing her arms across her chest. Instead of looking surprised, a victorious expression flashed across his face. Bonnie snorted, "You planned this all along didn't you?"

"Maybe," he answered before running off in the same direction as her mother.

* * *

To Bonnie's surprise, dinner wasn't awkward at all. It was quite the opposite. The conversation flowed naturally and the food was good. Woohyun and Howon even started some friendly banter, earning his own nickname 'Namu' for his tendency to root himself in one spot after her became comfortable. Bonnie's parents even managed to keep the embarrassing comments to a minimum (well, except for the story about her and an unfortunate run in with the law, but Woohyun thought it was cute). Aine, on the other hand, kept elbowing Bonnie in the side, suggesting that her sister give Woohyun some more food or drink (which Bonnie only heeded like half the time).

Then when it was time for dessert. Woohyun had to excuse himself from partaking due to his dietary restrictions. But he enjoyed watching everyone eat his creation with a smile on their faces. It was his favorite part of his job. Bringing joy to others. It warmed his heart. "Thanks for the cake, Woohyun. It's delicious," Mrs. Choi cooed with her mouth still full. Then she fed some to her husband, who gave Woohyun a thumbs up for a job well done.

"It was my pleasure," he replied. He looked over at his side where Bonnie was sitting. She was twiddling her thumbs and looking as if she was weighing something in her mind. She then made eye contact with him and then suddenly stood up.

"Excuse me for a moment. I'll be right back," she bid before she left for the kitchen. There was something in there that she had bought on impulse when she was shopping today. She bought it with no rhyme or reason, but with only one thought in her mind: she felt bad for the gluten intolerant baker.

Now, without the writer by his side, Woohyun felt a little insecure but he still managed to keep the conversation going. And it helped that everyone was stuffing their faces with cake, so there wasn't much to it. About five minutes later after Bonnie had left, a mysterious bowl appeared in front of him. "Here you go," Bonnie said, reappearing to his side. He looked back at the bowl. It was chocolate pudding with some slices of strawberries on top.

"Is this for me?" he asked, pointing to the bowl.

Bonnie looked away and blushed. "Yea, I feel bad that everybody else is eating dessert. You need something sweet too," she explained. Then she saw Woohyun look at the bowl with furrowed brows. Bonnie stuttered and reassured him. "But don't worry. It's sugar-free."

Woohyun put a spoonful of the dessert into his mouth and it tasted as one would expect sugar-free pudding to taste. But to him, it was the greatest thing he had in awhile. "Tokki-ssi, do you normally have sugar-free pudding lying around?" he asked, playfully nudging her shoulder with his.

"No. Not usually," she answered nonchalantly and then began to talk with Howon about the latest office gossip. Woohyun chuckled to himself. Bonnie gave him the pudding because she felt bad for being excluded in the dessert. But he already had something sweet.

* * *

" _Let's do a wee lil ditty fer the lads, eh_?"

The dishes were cleared, and the meal finished. But the group was still gathered around the table in casual conversation. Well, that was until Mrs. Choi whispered this suggestion to her daughters.

" _Ma do we hafta? This is Woohyun's first time here. We don't want to scare 'im off_ ," Bonnie whined, stealing a glance at the baker who was talking about soccer with the other men. She wasn't opposed to idea of singing publicly. Her mother, her sister, and herself often performed together, but mostly at their church and church-related events. Once in a while, they' would preform at bigger events, like school festivals. But this was different, more intimate. The last time she had sung for a boy like this, things didn't end up so well.

Aine scoffed and encouraged her sister, " _Bon, don't be silly. He'll love it, just like Hoya did_." Right, they had performed a song for Howon when he first came to their house. But at that time, it was different. At that time, Aine was already in love with Howon, and was eager to showcase her good side to the sport writer, wanted to make herself look desirable, to make him return her feeling to her..

" _But this is different. You were tryin' to seduce Hoya_ ," Bonnie reminded her.

Aine shrugged her shoulders. " _I don't see how this is any different_."

" _Nor do I_ ," her mother jumped into the girls' argument. " _If you don't want 'im, I'll gladly take 'im. Yer Da is gettin' ole 'n gray. Woohyun is a nice lil fella_." Mrs. Choi then stared at Woohyun with a look that could only be described as lecherous.

"MA!" Bonnie yelled, desperate to tear her mother's perverted eyes away from the naive baker. All of then men's eyes fell onto her after her little outburst.

At this moment, her father placed a hand on her shoulder, which had some sort of calming affect on Bonnie. "How 'bout you sing for me then?" he said softly. "It's been so long since the three of you were together like this. Do it for your father, please?"

Bonnie sighed resignedly. "Of course, Da." As much as she would hate to admit it, she did consider herself as a "daddy's girl." Not that she was spoiled, but she was easily swayed by the man, whereas she fought a little more against her mother.

"That's my girl," Mr. Choi responded, digging a finger lightly into the dimple appearing on her cheek. Bonnie blushed. Even though she was 20 something years old, she still considered that as a high compliment from her father.

Mrs. Choi smiled widely and clapped her hands in victory. "Alright girls, just follow me," she commanded her daughters. The she led them into the song, setting the pitch and tempo.

    _There's a tear in your eye and I'm wondering why,_
    _For it never should be there at all._
    _With such power in your smile, sure a stone you'd beguile,_
    _So there's never a teardrop should fall,_
     _When your sweet lilting laughter's like some fairy_ _song_
     _And_ _your eyes twinkle bright as can be._
    _You should laugh all the while and all other times smile,_
    _And now smile a smile for me._
    _When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure 'tis like a morn in spring._
    _In the lilt of Irish laughter, you can hear the angels sing._
    _When Irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay,_
    _And When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure, they steal your heart away._
    _For your smile is a part of the love in your heart,_
    _And it makes even sunshine more bright._
    _Like the linnet's sweet song, crooning all the day long._
    _Comes your laughter so tender and light._
    _For the springtime of life is the sweetest of all,_
    _There is ne'er a real care or regret._
    _And while springtime is ours, throughout all of youth's hours,_
    _Let us smile each chance we get._
    _When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure 'tis like a morn in spring._
    _In the lilt of Irish laughter, you can hear the angels sing._
    _When Irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay,_
    _And When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure, they steal your heart away._

Woohyun watched the trio in amazement. He bragged about himself and his voice, calling himself a seraphim. But Bonnie, modest and humble Bonnie, never spoke a word, and she sang like an angel as well. No, better than that, like the Virgin Mary (who wasn't really known for singing but Woohyun was ignoring that for the time being). The way she harmonized with her mother and her sister reminded him of the times he sang with Sungkyu at the university. It came naturally to them, and they sang while looking on at one another with smiling faces, like they were singing for the pure joy of it and nothing else. Woohyun had a lot more in common with Bonnie than he thought. He wanted to see how much they did share.

After the song was finished and after some applause and words of praise, Howon bounced and down in his spot. "Sing my song! Sing my song!" he urged Aine, who giggled at her husband's sudden aegyo attack.

"What's his song?" Bonnie whispered to her sister. She could already tell that she had no choice but to sing it.

Aine blushed, "I sing him 'Danny Boy,' but I change all the Dannys to Hoya."

Bonnie could feel her heartbeat in her throat. She hated that song. It used to be one of her favorites, but the last time she had sung it, he had sung it for that boy. Things didn't end up so well. "Aine, that song is really sad," she tried to dissuade her little sister.

"Well, he doesn't know that. He can only understand that one part," Aine replied, hanging her head, embarrassed to reveal the cheesy details of her and her husband's relationship.

"Oh, Hoya Boy I love you so?" Bonnie guessed at what line she sister had meant. Aine nodded. Bonnie sighed at looked at Howon who was expectantly looking at them. The way he looked at her sister was earnest and true. It was love. Bonnie felt firey jealousy flow through her veins and then subsequently shook her limbs as to shake the feeling off her bones. Bonnie spoke with a tight throat, "You two are perfect for each other."

"So you'll sing with me then?" Aine asked with hope. Bonnie nodded. "Alright! I'll lead this time."

 _Oh, Hoya Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling_  
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side,  
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling,  
It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.

 _But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,_  
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow,  
It's I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow,  
Oh, Hoya Boy, oh Hoya Boy, I love you so!

 _But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying,_  
If I am dead, as dead I well may be,  
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying,  
And kneel and say an Ave there for me;

 _And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,_  
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be,  
For you will bend and tell me that you love me,  
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!

Bonnie did not smile this time. Her mother and Aine still did, although not as brightly as before. It suited the slow, low melody. But Woohyun could not drag his eyes away from the writer. Her eyes sparkling with untold sadness and hurt. She knew so much about him. To her, he was an open book, but she had been a bit more gaurded than him. But for a girl that treasured honesty, there was nothing more honest than her face. He could tell what was wrong without her telling him. And it hurt him.

* * *

Aine and Howon departed and said their goodbyes. Howon had also promised before he left to take Woohyun along with him for the next basketball game after discovering that they rooted for the same team. Also Bonnie's parents went to their bedrooms to sleep. Mrs. Choi told Woohyun to stay as long as he wanted, which the baker seemed to be doing, lingering around the household, looking at every photo on the walls with that natural, imperfect grin.

"You never told me that you could sing," he stated playing with the edge of a picture frame.

Bonnie took the frame from his hands and placed it back onto the mantel. "It never came up," she responded.

Woohyun leaned against the mantel and studied the woman. "You know so much about me, but there's so much I don't know about you. How about I interview you for a change?"

"Me? What would you like to know?" she asked in disbelief. She wasn't what she considered to be interesting.

"Everything."

And that's how the two of them ended up sitting in the living room. Bonnie in an armchair and Woohyun was sprawled out on the couch next to her. He asked her question after question, and she answered them all, no matter how invasive or superficial. What's your favorite color? Green. What was her favorite season? Autumn. Why? She liked watching the leaves change and liked the musty smell. Did she have a boyfriend? No. Why not? No one asked her to be their girlfriend. Why not? She was shy and kept to herself mostly. But nothing spurred more of a response than this question:

“Is this another sister? Why aren’t you in the picture?” Woohyun asked, pointing at a photo of her family at her parent's 25th anniversary, taken less than 5 years before.

Bonnie brought her knees to her chest. She could feel her heart thumping against them. “I don’t have  another sister, and I am in the picture,” she answered quietly.

”Huh?" Woohyun examined the picture more closely, his sharp nose pratically touching the glass. "Oh!" he exclaimed pulling back and smiling. He pointed to her round figure in the picture. "Your—”

“Yes, yes. I used to be fat.”

“Your hair was a lot shorter," he completed his thought, ignoring Bonnie's angry interjection. "You grew it out. I like it longer.”

Bonnie dropped her knees and clutched the armrests. She raised an eyebrow to Woohyun. “Really? My hair was a lot shorter back then. That’s all you have to say?” she asked, not wanting to say his usual empty words, no 'special service.'

Woohyun shrugged and placed the frame on the table, not understanding why Bonnie was getting so worked up. He decided to classify it under the famed Irish temper. “Everyone’s weight fluctuates,” he stated plainly.

Listlessly, Bonnie melted into the armchair. It wasn't like she was a few pounds heavier in the photo. She was a hundred pounds heavier. Her cheeks were so large, you could barely see her hazel eyes shine behind them. What she went through, many would consider a transformation, a metamorphosis. She was a fat round catepillar, but now a slender butterfly. But Woohyun, Name Woohyun the baker from a shop that thrived on the employees' good looks, could care less, in a good way. She had expected him to poke fun at her former chubbiness or at least comment on it, but to concentrate on her hairstyle and then act like everyone fluctuates 100 pounds, it left her stunned. “You…you say everything so simply.”

Woohyun pouted. “Are saying that I’m a simpleton?”

“No, no not at all," Bonnie straightened up and waved her hand. "I just wish that more people could see the world like you do. _I_ wish that _I_ could see the world like you do.”

Woohyun could see how troubled she was, but becoming like him would not solve her problems. It would only add to them. He had wanted to tell her that the way he viewed the world was more idealistic than realistic, and that it had landed him into some trouble, not ever knowing when to give up because he thought that it would all work out. And when it didn’t, it left him devastated. Bonnie, on the other hand, had a more balanced view of the world. But before he could confess to all of that, he heard a sniffle coming from Bonnie. He crawled over to the end of the couch closest to her but too afraid to do much more lest it would upset her even more. “What’s wrong?”

“Right now? Or with me in general?” she asked, burying her face into her knees which she clutched again to her chest.

Woohyun reached over and touched her knee. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfect,” he spoke softly.

Bonnie lifted her head, revealing her reddening face and watering eyes. “Woohyun-ssi, you’re lying again," she warned him with a sad giggle. "I see the way you look at me sometimes. You know.”

Woohyun chewed on his lower lip. He couldn't feign ignorance. He had known about her little secret for a while, since the second day the met (and he had his suspicions on the first). He retracted his hand. “I know, but I don’t know why.”

“Do you want to know the whole story?" her voice was shaking and unsure. Woohyun nodded. Bonnie let out another sad giggle."But you’re going to think I’m crazy.”

“I already think that,” he joked maybe inappropriately, but he wanted to lighten the mood, to encourage her open up.

And she recieved it well. A genuine laugh filled the still air. She shoved him with a smile on her face.“Jerk! After saying that I was perfect.”

“You’re crazily perfect or perfectly crazy," he continued his little jokes. He then saw her laughter abide and her chewing nervously on her lower lip. She was on the edge of coming clean; she only needed one extra push. "Come on. Tell me…please?” he earnestly begged.

Bonnie sighed, exhaling all of her reservations. However she still wasn't confident enough to look him in the eye. Her eyes were glued onto the carpet. “Okay well," she started her story, "they say that people overeat to fill a void. Honestly, I never thought I had one. My parents always doted on me. They never favored Aine over me, even though she’s little and cute. And I always had good friends, and I was well liked by my classmates. But I guess that was it. I only had friends, and I was only ever just liked. But I didn’t think about it too much because I was focused on either my class ranking or my dream of becoming a journalist. I always thought that I would fall in love and have a boyfriend later, when I had more time. As if it was as simple as that." She laughed at her former naive self and sighed again before continuing. "I didn’t realize until later that I never had a boyfriend not because I was focusing on my career but because of the way that I looked. Daehyun taught me that.”

“Daehyun?” Woohyun interjected for the first time since she started. She hadn't even realized how quiet he was until this moment. For a boy who liked to talk and play around, he was silent, still, and hanging on her every word. He rested his head on the armrest facing her, blinking cutely as he waited for her response.

Bonnie realized that it was time for her continue and cease from admiring him. “He was my…friend I guess. That’s really all we were, but I always thought it was something more. I met him in college, and we instantly clicked. We had the same likes and dislikes, we would go out to movies and restaurants together all the time, and we could just talk for hours. Once we even fell asleep with each other on the phone, like they do in the movies. He always knew how to make me feel better. He’d tell me how sweet and thoughtful I was. He’d tell me that I was pretty and that I sang better than IU. He’d say that I was his closest friend. And he…he was my first love."

At this moment, she had to stop. Her throat was closing up, old emotions that she had buried long ago were rising again to the surface. And it hurt, those memories. Memories that she'd thought she's always treasure instead of hide. She felt a hand on her shoulder, recalling her to reality. Woohyun's eyes were encouraging but there was also a sense of 'I will not push you, if you don't want to.' A softness. He was saying so much but nothing at all with that one look. And Bonnie felt like she could finish her story:

"And I thought he felt the same way. So one day, I told him how I felt, and he said that he loved me back…but just as a friend. ‘More like a sister, really,’ was what he said. I asked him ‘Why? Why don’t you see me as a woman?’ He said that I wasn’t his type. That he liked traditional looking Korean women with the pale face and the red lips that were skinny. I should’ve just stopped there. I should’ve stopped loving him right then. But since that was the closest that I’ve ever been to love, I guess that I didn’t want to let go. So I held onto him. Well, there was nothing I could do about me being half-Korean except for hiding my freckles. But the weight was something I could change. And when I finally lost a good amount of weight, I confessed again. But he rejected me again. When I asked why, he said that it was because I had changed and he didn't want a girl who would change for a guy." Bonnie started laughing but the laugh soon turned into tears, gasping for air and whimpering. "Can you believe that? He should’ve just told me that he would have never liked me no matter what I did, but instead…he broke me.”

Woohyun rubbed circles into her shoulder with his thumb. “Tokki-ssi, you’re not broken.”

Bonnie defiantly looked at him and argued and all of her secrets spilled forth, “Yes I am. Look at me. I’m a mess. And food is all I can think about. If I’m not writing  about it, then I’m counting calories. I even dream about food. I’m obsessed. I have a food log, did you know that? I write down everything I eat, what and how much, and sometimes how many times I—“

Woohyun's thumb stopped. His jaw dropped. “Wait, Tokki-ssi. You don’t mean.”

“Making myself throw up?" she asked for clarification. Woohyun nodded and she did too. "But I sort of stopped doing that.”

Woohyun retracted his hand altogether. “Sort of? When was the last time?" he asked sternly. Bonnie looked away in embarrassment. Woohyun's heart dropped. "Don’t tell me. It was recently, wasn’t it?”

She started to cry harder, having been caught, but still answered. “The day we met. It was just too much. Too much food. And you reminded me so much of Daehyun, with what you were saying. And I don’t know why." She took in a deep breath, trying to gather herself. "I honestly thought that being skinny would solve all of my problems. So I guess I’m just waiting until I’m skinny enough and it does.  It’s messed up, right?” When she asked that question, she was afraid to look at the man next to her, but she did it anyway. He was still looking at her as softly as ever.

He chuckled sadly. “I’m as just as messed up as you are. Look at me, I bake things that could kill me. All because I want people to like me.”

“I like you,” the words quickly feel from her mouth before she could stop them. Her mouth had divulging so many of her secrets and this one had decided to sneak out as well.

Woohyun smiled, exposing his crooked teeth. “I like you too. And I mean it,” he confessed and reassured her. He then grabbed her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. With his free hand, he wiped the tears that were wetting her cheeks. “That guy was a jerk. He just didn’t see how pretty you were,” he tried to comfort her.

 _‘How pretty you were’… were, not are. Does he really think that I was attractive back then?_ Bonnie pulled away and wiped her own tears, which were flowing incessantly from her eyes (even more so with the heightened tension in the air). “D-don’t say things like that,” she commanded with a shaky voice.

Woohyun frowned and straightened up, but his grip on her hand became tighter. “Why do you always say that?”

“Because I—“ _might end up falling for you_ , was what she meant to say, but her throat closed up before she could get the words out. She coughed, clearing her throat, and stared at Woohyun with pleading eyes. “Because you don’t mean it.”

At that, Woohyun scooted in closer to Bonnie, and his face grew grave. “I did mean it, and I do. Bonnie, you’re beautiful.” Bonnie opened her mouth to object, but Woohyun shut her up. “With your red hair,” he said moving a few strands from her face. “Your hazel eyes,” he wiped the tears just emerging from her ducts. “And your cute freckles,” his knuckle brushed down the bridge of her nose. “He must have been blind to not think you were pretty.” Bonnie felt his other hand final relinquish its vice-like grip on her hand; and her hand felt immediately colder. But his hand moved up to her wrist and gently circled his fingers around it. He lifted it up so they both could clearly see, and he sighed. “But right now. You’re too skinny,” he whispered as he looked at his fingers that easily overlapped each other as they encircled her wrist. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you.”

Woohyun’s eyes were sincere; they were too much for Bonnie. She took in a deep breath and looked away, her eyes falling on the digital clock. “Oh,” she gasped. “It’s one in the morning. You have to go to work in 2 hours.” She looked again at Woohyun, carefully avoiding his eyes, but she could still see the puffy, dark circles forming underneath them. Then his mouth opened, and he yawned, exposing his crooked teeth. He was exhausted, but still attentively listened to everything Bonnie had to say.

Woohyun blinked away blurring tears as he yawned. Bonnie looked worried, and rightly so. He probably shouldn’t have stayed this late, but time had escaped from him. Even given the late hour, he didn’t want to leave just yet; he felt comfortable. “I should probably leave now,” he said tentatively, hoping that Bonnie would object. But as usual, she acted as politely as she should.

“Let me drive you home,” she offered as she stood up and helped a tired Woohyun to his feet. He slightly stumbled as he did so. Bonnie giggled, “I shouldn’t let you wander the streets alone like this. You’re sleep drunk.”

He regained his footing as he went to grab for her coat. Bonnie laughed again, “You know, I can put on a coat myself. You don’t have to treat me like one of your ‘girlfriends.’” Her words were refusing him, but her actions said otherwise as she blushed and allowed him to help her with her coat.

Somehow her words managed to sting Woohyun. Maybe he had misinterpreted the atmosphere between them, but he thought that this was going somewhere. “This isn’t ‘service.’ This is me being a decent human being,” he lightly joked with a straight face. He spun Bonnie around and was surprised to see her holding his own coat in her hands.

“Then this is me being a decent human being,” she retorted, gesturing for Woohyun to turn around so that she could help him with his coat, like he’s done several times for her. She had to stand on her tiptoes to get the coat to rest properly on his broad shoulders. Unconsciously, Bonnie began to smooth out the wrinkles on his back and picked stray hairs from his coat, like a chimpanzee preening its mate. She didn’t realize she was doing it until she felt his back vibrate from a short chuckle. Her hands stopped, and Woohyun turned around to face her. Once again, Bonnie didn’t have the courage to look him in the eye, so instead she concentrated on the zipper resting at the bottom of his coat. She attached the other side of the coat into the zipper and began to pull it upwards. At some point, as she was pulling up the zipper, Woohyun had placed his hands on her shoulders, softly rubbing them under his thumbs, pulling her in closer. Once the zipper reached the top, Bonnie slowly looked up. Her eyes falling on his Adam’s apple, then his sharp jaw, up to his parted lips, on his pointed nose, and finally on his eyes which were closed as he leaned in closer to her. Her world went black, as she closed her own eyes and lifted her head, pressing her lips against his.

Woohyun’s hands moved from her shoulders, and he embraced her, bringing her body against his, deepening the kiss. The moment felt right, and the kiss felt right. Bonnie must have thought so too as she snuck her hands around his waist. Woohyun didn’t know if it was from the exhaustion or from the fact that this was the most he felt in a long time, but he began to feel light-headed. He slowly pulled away and lowered his arms, giving her one last peck on the lips before ceasing the kiss altogether. “I should…” he began, but his words stopped. He knew that he should leave, but now more than ever he didn’t want to. He felt comfortable.

Bonnie disengaged herself from the baker. “It’s late,” she softly stated. She grabbed her car keys from a bowl on a small table. Then she walked back to Woohyun and took his hand into hers. “Let’s get you home.”

* * *

At some point in time on the short car ride back to his apartment, Woohyun had managed to fall asleep, resting the side of his head on the window. Bonnie was glad to see him rest, even for a short while, not only because he had clearly passed the brink of exhaustion hours ago, but because for once in her life she couldn’t find words in thought or voice. It was like the kiss had robbed her of all speech and left her with this inexplicable feeling. Woohyun might as well sleep then, instead of spending a car ride in complete, awkward silence. At least now, his soft snoring filled the air.

Once she parked the car in front of his home, Bonnie reached over to unbuckle him, slowly and carefully as to not wake him up (which she concluded shortly afterwards was completely silly because she would have to wake him up anyway). She then stepped down from the driver’s seat and walked around the outside of the car until she reached the passenger’s side. She smiled as she briefly stopped and stared at Woohyun through the window. With his hair matted against the window and his cheek pressed against the glass, even though it slightly contorted his face, the sight warmed her heart like whenever she saw a puppy in a pet-shop window. Bonnie contemplated letting him sleep just a little longer, but she concluded that his own bed would be warmer than her car, and if he kept sleeping like this, it would lead to an incredibly stiff neck in the morning. And so she opened up the car door and immediately cursed, “SHIT!” Unbuckling Woohyun had not been her best idea because now he was falling out of the car, headfirst. Luckily, she caught him before he fell entirely out of the car. And the sudden fall woke Woohyun up.

He gripped her shoulders tightly, attempting to steady himself as half his body was inside the car and the other half outside of it. He looked up at her in confusion. Having just woken up, he had no idea where he was or why all the sudden he was in Bonnie’s arms. After scanning his surroundings, his mind quickly caught up and filled in the blanks for him. He was home. Bonnie had driven him there. And Bonnie was…pulling him out of the car? Well, his mind couldn’t quite fill in all of the blanks. He looked back to her startled face and smiled the way she liked. “Good morning,” was the brilliant thing that his languid brain was able to concoct for him to say.

“Good morning,” Bonnie replied, helping him out of the car. “But I should probably say ‘good night.’ If you’re lucky, you could probably get an hour of sleep before you need to work.”

 _Or I could spend another hour with you_ , he wanted to say, but he knew that Bonnie would politely decline. He was starting to dislike her manners. His eyes surveyed her face. It was haggard. She’d been awake practically as long as he had been, and it was starting to show. It would be better if they just left things and feelings unexplained, unanswered now, until they were more cognizant. “Will I see you tomorrow?” he asked full of hope as he watched her walk back to the driver’s side.

She opened up the car door and rested her head on top of it. “I need to go back to the office. There are…things that I need to take care of,” she answered with a yawn.

“How long will it take?” Woohyun put his hands in his pockets, trying to act calm and collected. But the cold air was chilling him to the bone, and his chest began to grow heavy with anticipation.

Bonnie frowned in thought. “I don’t know,” she concluded. “But I’ll see you later. Sleep tight!” With that, she climbed into the car.

“Later, Tokki-ssi!” Woohyun waved farewell as Bonnie drove off into the distance. “Later?” he repeated with a frown. He knew that Bonnie was in the habit of rarely lying, or saying things just to make him feel better, only saying things if she meant it. So Woohyun would see her again, but later was too vague and left a poor taste in his mouth when he had said it.

A lot of things could change from now until later, and it was entirely possible that later could easily shift into never. Later is such a terrible time.


	5. A Four Tiered Cake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woohyun gets a new bunny

“He still has that thing?” Myungsoo asked looking at the snoring lump (Woohyun) on the booth in the corner of the dining area.

Dongwoo walked up to see what his brother was talking about. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “It’s Momo!”

Woohyun had passed out after baking up a storm, moments after Bonnie had him. He couldn’t sleep. The events of that night/early morning stoked a fire in his veins that wouldn’t die down. Only after baking almost twice his usual amount, did he finally succumb to sleep, but not before he brought out his age-old, little companion into the dream realm, Momo, a stuffed rabbit that used to be white but his fur had browned with age and was matted down by the amount of love (and smothering) Woohyun had given it over the years.  Woohyun stirred in his sleep and rubbed his cheek against Momo’s squished face. “I love you,” he murmured under his breath.

Dongwoo knelt down and brought his face close to Woohyun’s. “Aw! I love you too,” Dongwoo responded, his voice an octave higher than usual in an attempt to make it sound like Momo was talking back. He lifted Momo’s ears and brushed them across Woohyun’s face.

“Really?” Woohyun giggled.

Myungsoo wanted to join in on the game and knelt next to Dongwoo. “Do you want a kiss?” Myungsoo asked in a squeaky voice. Woohyun nodded, his eyes tightly shut and his lips slightly puckering. Dongwoo was biting the insides of his cheeks to hold in his rising laughter as Myungsoo’s lips were nearing Woohyun’s. However, they never touched, and Myungsoo stopped just hovering over his cousin, their faces only millimeters apart. Woohyun’s eyes blinked open, curious as to why his promised kiss never came. He screamed when his eyes met with Myungsoo’s, and he shoved his cousin away with a hard push. “Ew! Gross!” Woohyun shouted wiping his mouth. “That’s incest!”

Myungsoo rolled his eyes as Dongwoo rolled on the floor with a fit of laughter. “We didn’t kiss, so stop freaking out,” Myungsoo told Woohyun who was now wiping his mouth on Momo. “When did you come home anyways? Dongwoo and I didn’t see you come in.”

Woohyun stopped, his cheeks quickly reddening. "Late."

His cousins stared at him blankly for a few seconds. The blush gave him away, they knew exactly what must have transpired last night, more exactly what he had done with his lips. Then they turned towards each other. Dongwoo held out his hand. Myungsoo sighed and took out his wallet, carefully counting out money before putting it in his brother's hand. "I can't believe I lost," the little brother grumbled under his breath.

Dongwoo laughed loudly. "I told you. I TOLD YOU ALL! They were going to get together by the end of the week, but nooo. You thought two weeks. And Yeol said it would take a month. Jjong was naive and said a whole year. But I told you a week. I guess no one knows Nam-goon like I do," he ended by winking at the stunned baker sitting in the booth still clutching onto his stuffed bunny. 

Woohyun stood up. "Yah yah yah!" he yelled pointing at his cousins. "You guys bet on me and Tokki-ssi?" The two were stunned and afraid to move because of Woohyun's sudden outburst.

Dongwoo handed over some of his earnings. "I guess I owe you some of this because I wouldn't have won without you. Thank you," he said sweetly trying to calm down the beast.

Woohyun took the money and put it in his pocket. "Damn straight you owe me," he cursed but his tone was more jovial especially with the new additions lying in his wallet.

"So when's Bonnie coming over today?" Myungsoo innocently asked. "I don't see her around here either." He was so used to the writer being around the last few days that he'd even got her coffee this morning. Without her, the bakery already felt a little emptier.

The smile left Woohyun's face. "She has a real job, you know. She can't spend all her time here," he mumbled angrily.

_"_ Soooo...not today," Myungsoo concluded.

"I don't know," Woohyun spat. "I'm going into the kitchen to bake and do...other...bake-y things." He then left without even glancing at his cousins.

Dongwoo whistled lowly and faced his brother. "Must have ended poorly last night."

"Bad kiss?" Myungsoo suggested. "Hyung hasn't dated in awhile. He's probably forgotten how to." 

"Maybe he was never good at it to begin with. He's probably the type to talk while kissing," Dongwoo joked.

Myungsoo laughed loudly. "Right! He'd probably be like 'Wow! This feels nice, doesn't it feel nice?' " he said in a low voice, trying to mimic Woohyun's.

"You're my destiny," Dongwoo said seriously in his best Woohyun voice, cupping Myungsoo's cheeks.

Myungsoo reciprocated the action, cupping his brother's cheeks. "No, you're MY destiny." Then they both burst into laughter, having fun at their cousin's expense.

While his cousins were debating his skinship capabilities, Woohyun rested his head on the cold metallic countertop in the kitchen. The chilly surface against his warm skin had a calming effect on him, helping him to gather his thoughts. _Later, she said later. Does that mean today or tomorrow or the day after that? Or 50 years from now after she's married with kids_ , Woohyun's thoughts spun around his head, worsening his mood. To him, last night was amazing. The kiss had meant something for him, a whole lot of something. He hadn't felt so much for a woman in a while. And with her innocence, he felt like he was experiencing his first love again. But when she dropped him off, she acted distant, distracted. Hopefully she didn't feel regret.

Woohyun lifted his head and looked at Momo who was sitting in Bonnie's chair. "You love me, don't you?" he asked desperately.

Momo fell out of the chair.

* * *

“I don’t think that I can finish the article,” Bonnie declared. She was standing in Sungkyu’s office, who was busy editing another article when Bonnie suddenly barged into his office.

He put down the article and looked at Bonnie incredulously. “Why? Is there a problem?” he asked. “If Hyunnie is giving you any trouble, I can yell at him for you,” he offered with a cheeky smile as he reached for the phone on his desk.

“That won’t be necessary,” Bonnie rejected with a shake of her head. “He’s been very cooperative. We’ve been getting along very well.” _A little too well_.

“Then what is it?” Sungkyu asked with a worried look on his face. Bonnie studied her boss carefully. There was a point in time where she would be overjoyed to see Sungkyu worry over her. She would have given anything to see him cheekily smile like he did before. A smile that used to melt her heart. The smile that she hadn’t thought about in a long time. She didn’t know when Sungkyu had left her thoughts and her heart, but she was pretty sure that aligned with another event.

“I love him,” Bonnie admitted with a resigned sigh. “I love Woohyun.” She sat down at a seat in front of the oak desk and buried her hands into her hair as she hung her head. “How can I write a proper article now? Everything I write now will be skewed because I fell for the stupid assignment.” She looked up at a stunned Sungkyu. “And it’s not just Woohyun,” she confessed. “It’s all of them: Myungsoo, Dongwoo, Sungyeol, and Sungjong too. I love them all! You were right. They did deserve a second look.” Bonnie hung her head so low that he chin hit her chest. “What kind of writer am I? I’m supposed to remain objective. Now everything’s ruined.”

All the sudden, she felt a hand patting her on the back. Bonnie looked to the side and saw Sungkyu kneeling next to her, comforting her. “No it’s not,” he reassured her. “Bonnie-ssi, this will be the best article you’ve ever written because your heart is in the right place this time.” He stood up and returned back behind his desk. “Plus you’re always honest to a fault, and people eat up romantic pieces. Imagine the reaction the public would have to your genuine, heartfelt confession to the local heartthrob baker. I might win an award for this. I mean, _we_ might win an award for this.”

Bonnie sat up straight, cocked her head to the side, and crossed her arms. “If I didn’t know any better, it’s almost like you knew this would happen,” she accused him as she narrowed her eyes.

Sungkyu smiled cheekily again. “I had my suspicions.”

* * *

Sungjong peaked through the swinging door, peering into the kitchen. "Hyung is insane." He pulled out his head and turned to Sungyeol, Dongwoo, and Myungsoo right behind him. "He's feeding that dingy stuffed animal now. He does know that it's not real, right?"

Sungyeol pushed him out of the way. "Let me see!" he commanded. And almost immediately after he put his head in the kitchen, he pulled it right out again. "Nope. Nope. I'm pretty sure he thinks that thing is alive," his voice sounded slightly scared. "He was just kissing it...and I don't mean a peck. Like a full on kiss."

Myungsoo pushed his friend out of the way. "Let me see!" He looked in and after a few seconds he pulled his head out and looked at Dongwoo. "I think we were wrong about the kissing. He knows what he's doing."

Dongwoo sighed and shook his head. "Tokki-ssi needs to come back soon before Woohyun loses it," he muttered under his breath.

* * *

Bonnie sat in front of her computer with her head in her hands. Now after meeting with Sungkyu, she felt more pressure than ever. She had to write a retraction, a new review, and more importantly a heart-tugging confession. And the last time she confessed, to Daehyun, her life spirled out of control. Her heart was beating uncomfortably fast, and it felt like it was trying to leap out of her throat. She needed a distraction. So she finally finished _Flower Boy Ramyun Shop_...and she cried.

The owner who built the main girl a family, who was always by her side, was dumped for a teenager with an attitude problem. And to top it all off, the ramyun shop owner just left mysteriously, and no one seemed to care. But Bonnie cared. She cared a whole lot. When she had first watched the drama, she pegged Woohyun as the womanizing selfish teen, but he was the tall, handsome owner all along. And with that recognition, her heart sank even more. He wouldn't disappear like the guy in the drama did, would he? He wouldn't reject her like Daehyun did? But what if...Woohyun really wasn't the owner, but that damned teenager like she initially thought, and all of this was a ploy to get a good review?

"Tokki, stop it," Bonnie reprimanded herself, smacking the sides of her head with the heels of her palms. "Great, even I'm calling myself Tokki now." Bonnie turned her head and something caught her eye, the picture of her and her family at her parents' 25th wedding anniversary. And she remembered the look in Woohyun's eye when she told him...everything. That was all she needed for encouragement to write.

She opened up a new document on her laptop and placed her hands at the keys. 

"Dear readers, you're going to read something that you wouldn't see from most opinion columnist/critics: I was wrong. I was very wrong. Want to read something more surprising? I'm in love. I'm in love with Flower Boy Bake Shop, whose pastries I first described as lackluster but are quickly starting to improve in quality and show great promise. I'm in love with its employees who devote their lives to provide a pleasant experience with their patrons and engage in a game of pretend with them. But most of all, from the bottom of my heart, from the tips of my toes to the hair on my head, I wholly love its baker, Nam Woohyun..."

* * *

“Well, how is it?” Bonnie asked.

It was Friday morning, and Sungkyu nodded as he looked at her most recent draft of the article. Damn, he was good at his job. He was _really_ good at his job. He had accurately predicted that things would turn out this way. But it wasn’t all based on intuition; it was largely based on his own experience. Woohyun was a unique creature, the only person Sungkyu knew who could charm his worst enemy. And the editor had empirically concluded that the amount a person disliked Woohyun at first was directly proportional to the amount the person  would come to like him. When Sungkyu first met Woohyun during their university days, he absolutely hated him, but years later, Sungkyu would come to call him his best friend. Bonnie, on the other hand, and was evident in her first article, _loathed_ Woohyun. So this was the natural outcome: the most compelling article Sungkyu had read in years.

"Let's print it this Sunday with that picture you took with them. You guys practically look like lovebirds in it," he said with a giggle handing the article back to her.

Bonnie smirked, taking the papers back from his hands. "I'm glad that I got the Energy Prince's approval," she teased and even blew him a kiss.

The smile fled from her boss's face. "I think Woohyun has been a bad influence on you, Bonnie-ssi."

* * *

The weekend had crept along for both Woohyun and Bonnie. Bonnie was busy in her office, cleaning up the article, steeling herself for the reaction that would come from it. But mostly she hid. She hid like a little rabbit in its burrow, waiting for the coldness to end and for the sun to come out again. On Sunday, Woohyun would know her heart (that is if Sungkyu hadn't shared the article with his best friend yet). Would he accept it?

And then there was Woohyun who immersed himself in baking, trying all of these insane recipes and weird flavor combinations. Cakes lined the walls of the kitchen, all waiting for Bonnie to taste them and give him her honest opinion. But for now, he had Momo. Momo who was now dirtier than ever with icing coating his fur. And the flower boys were safely keeping their distance from him, wondering if the baker started to date the stuffed animal like some men date those anime pillows. But now, all Woohyun could do was wait for later.

Then Sunday came and the article came out.

* * *

Bonnie was sitting in the cubicle her head in her hands. Earlier she had unplugged her office phone. It had been ringing off the hook ever since she entered the office. All of them from the concerned 'girlfriends' and Ahjummahs, wondering how their beloved Woohyun had responded. Some of them were words of congratulations and well-wishes, and others were death threats. Not a single one contained the voice she most wanted to hear. But it was still early...for the rest of the world. But Woohyun had been up for hours already. He probably should have seen the article by now. Why hasn't she heard from him yet? She thought back to the sleezy teenager in the drama.

Something hard hit her head, a crumpled piece of paper. She unraveled it and read:

** Tokki, **

** Get out of your damn rabbit hole and look up! **

She looked up to see Howon peeking over their shared wall. “I've been up here for a while," he complained with pouting lips. Then he showed her the cover of her section, the picture of her with the flower boys. "Nice article. It made Aine cry,” he praised but later undercut, “mostly because she had to read about her older sister’s love life in a newspaper instead of hearing it from you herself.”

“I know,” Bonnie sighed. “She’s been sending me angry texts _all_ morning.” The cellphone next to her elbow began to vibrate angrily. “And that would be her again,” she groaned as she picked up the phone and read her most recent message.

“Tell her that I didn’t know anything about it,” Howon pleaded, his eyebrows touching his hairline as he tried to read the text. “She doesn’t believe me. I mean, I have my own job to do, so it’s not like all I do here is gossip with you about your love life. Hell, I had no idea you would even like that kid. He still doesn’t seem like your type. Not like I know what your type is anyway. Like I said before, I have my own job to do, so I can’t sit here and gossip about your love life all day. Besides, I thought you were still crushing on our boss. Whatever happened to that? And—Tokki, what’s wrong?” Midway through his rant, he realized Bonnie was sitting there with her head in her hands, sighing as if she wanted to exhale her soul from her body. “He hasn’t contacted you yet, has he? Worried that he might not feel the same way?”

Bonnie’s head shot up. Her eyes glistened. “Why would you say that?!” she whined.

Howon looked shocked and pointed a finger at her. “You were thinking it!”

Bonnie stood up. “Well, yea, but you didn’t have to go and say that!” she yelled as she stormed out of her cubicle.

Problem was that she had no where else to escape. All eyes were following her where she went. She heard them whisper her name and his. She saw them start to approach her. Bonnie picked up her pace and hopped to the only place she knew no one would follow her, the bathroom. She ran into an open stall and shut the door. After sitting on the toilet, she groaned. She didn’t mean to yell, but her nerves were raw and her Irish temper got the better of her. Ever since the newspaper went to print, doubts began to swirl around and overcome her thoughts. What if Woohyun was the womanizing baker that she originally thought he was? What if everything was just a ploy so that he could get a better review? What if she had been fooled in love again?

* * *

"Nam-goon! NAM-GOON!" Dongwoo yelled as he clambered down the stairs. After reaching the bottom of the stairs, he ran in front of Woohyun, panting and wheezing. "The...the girlfriends...they stole it!" he spat out in between breaths.

Woohyun put down the bowl he was mixing with and wiped his hands. "Stole what?"

Then all of the sudden, Myungsoo broke in through the side door with a mountain of newspapers in his arms. "Don't worry hyung. I found some more," Myungsoo announced proudly. Then he plopped them onto the table. "I bought some more just in case."

"In case of what?" Woohyun asked, completely lost. Why would they ever need 15 copies of the same newspaper?

"It's Bonnie's article. It's out," Dongwoo said, finally regaining his breath.

Woohyun froze. Dongwoo walked up to him, opened his arms, and placed a newspaper into his hands, opened to the page of the article. The brothers gathered at both of the baker's sides and read over his shoulders. Woohyun could feel both of their breaths tickle his neck as they mumbled the words of the articles. With a deep breath, he gathered the courage to read it.

He only read the first paragraph before he was out the door.

* * *

“Hello, my little To…kki," Woohyun stepped inside of Bonnie's cubicle, but didn't see the writer anywhere. He looked around and even under her desk just to make sure that she wasn't hiding somewhere. He stood up after looking on his knees under the desk. "Is she not here?” he mumbled under his breath.

“Oh, it’s Namu!” he heard a familiar voice call out from above him.

Woohyun looked around curiously and his eyes fell on his favorite sports reporter. “Oh, it’s Hoya!” he exclaimed with a wave.

“Yah!" Howon yelled with a big smile on his face. "Only close friends and family can call me that.”

“Who knows?" Woohyun said sheepishly. His cheeks were growing hot, and he kicked the carpet with his foot. "We might be family soon.”

Howon's smile widened, and he rested his head on the edge of the cubicle wall. “You’re accepting Tokki’s confession?” he asked.

“Yep," the baker answered. Then he chuckled. "But it’s kinda hard when she’s not here. Where is she?”

“The bathroom," Howon replied looking off into the direction of the toliets. He gazed down at Woohyun again. "Actually, she’s been in there for a while. Like unnaturally long.”

Woohyun's heart quickened and his stomach churned, recalling what she had told him the last time they talked. Today, she was probably under a lot of stress, and he had been late coming here because his newspaper was stolen. Had she thought that he had rejected her like Daehyun?

“Huh? The bathroom?!" his voice raised a couple of decibels. He pointed at the sports writer threateningly. "You let her go to the bathroom?!”

Howon automatically shot his hands up into the air, like a criminal giving himself up to a cop, and Woohyun's finger did look at scary as a gun right now. “Uh, should I not?” Howon asked.

“Yes!" Woohyun put down his finger. But the murderous look did not leave his eyes. "Do you have any idea what she’s probably doing in there?” he growled.

“Um, I try not to think about it," Howon answered in a dazed voice. Then he thought for a few moments before replying, "Well, considering how long she’s been in there, she’s probably taking a shi—and I’m talking to myself!" Woohyun had left in the middle of Howon's well-thought out reply. The sports writer looked around the empty cubicle and squinted his eyes as he peered down the hall. "Where the hell did he go?”

* * *

It took him a while and a few wrong turns to find the women's bathroom, but as soon as he did. He ripped open the door without a second thought or a care for decorum. He looked under every stall door until he saw a pair of little green shoes tapping away nervously on the tile floor, like a bunny thumping it's legs.

"Bonnie! Bonnie, open up!" he commanded as he knocked on the stall door. "I know you’re in here!"

Bonnie lifted her head from her hands. "Woo-woohyun-ssi?" her voice stammered out of shock. What would he be doing here? Maybe she was hearing things?

She wasn't because Woohyun's deep (and angry) voice sounded from the other side, "Yes, it’s me. Now open up! You don’t have to do this to yourself!" 

The writer stood up and opened the door. She saw Woohyun's eyes darting all over her form, scanning her. She cocked her head, completely confused. "Do what?" she asked.

Woohyun didn't even bother answering her. He brushed past her and looked into the toliet. It was empty. Then he faced her again and took her hand into his. Bringing up her hand to his eye-level, he studied her finger tips, looking for any sign, any slick coating. They were perfectly dry. Then he forced her mouth open with his pointer fingers and looked deeply into the dark cavern, even giving it a sniff. Nothing, except for it smelled minty fresh. He pulled back from her, defeated. He had apparently jumped to the wrong conclusion and now subsequently embarrassed himself and accused her of relapsing into bad habits again.

"What were you doing in here?" he asked, not able to contain his curiosity.

"Wallowing in self-pity," Bonnie answered honestly, slightly embarrassed herself for acting like a teenager, sulking off into the bathroom to avoid drama. She looked up at Woohyun. "Why? What did you think I was doing?"

Woohyun rubbed the back of his neck and his skin grew hot. "Well…you know…about you said the other night with the..." he gestured gagging himself. He looked down, avoiding her eyes, preparing for her to yell at him 'Don't say things like that' and storming off. But instead, he felt arms slip around his waist and her head nuzzling into his chest. He smiled and wrapped his own arms around her, gripping her tightly.

"Thank you," her voice was muffled against his wool sweater.

Woohyun chuckled at the feeling of her voice bouncing off his skin. "For what?"

Her fingers played with the hem of his sweater at his back nervously. Her cheek pressed hard against the abrasive wool. "For being here. Being you," she answered meekly.

"Of course I’d be here. I’ll always be here," he reassured her, rubbing circles into her back. Bonnie laughed. And he did too. This situation was a little odd and the setting unromantic. "Well, not here in the girls’ bathroom, but here by your side."

Bonnie happily hummed at that sentiment and regretfully began to pull herself way from him. But she needed too. "We should probably get out of here," she said. There was bound to be some unsuspecting woman to barge into the restroom and would be unsettled to find this scene of a man and woman innocently snuggling by the bathroom sinks.

"I know the perfect place," Woohyun said, letting her body go, but gripped onto her hand. He began to pull her out of the restroom.

"I just meant out of the bathroom, but okay. Where are we going?" she asked as they finally left the tiled room and returned to the cubicle filled office and was confronted with a large group of people gathered outside the bathroom door wondering what all the fuss and yelling was about. Even Sungkyu joined the crowd after hearing the rumor that the baker had torn the bathroom door off its hinges (all lies sadly, that would have been cool to have seen).

"Gyu-hyung!" Woohyun called out to the boss. He raised his hand that was holding Bonnie's. "I’m taking Tokki-ssi out for lunch! We _might_ be back later." And with that, the couple ran off to avoid the gazes of their peers.

"Okay," Sungkyu answered, slightly stunned at his friend's sudden statement. Then the words finally registered. "Wait, _might_ be back. Yah! Nam Woohyun!

* * *

"Really? You made it sound like we were going somewhere exciting," Bonnie teased. She found herself again in the kitchen of Flower Boy Bake Shop. They had snuck in through the side door, unbeknownst to everyone else.

"Don’t worry I can make it _exciting_." Woohyun retorted wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. And to his delight, Bonnie blushed. "Come on sit here," he said pulling out her usual chair. But Momo was still on it. He quickly brushed the stuffed animal off of the seat and onto the floor, pretending to brush of the dust for his new girlfriend.

"What are we doing?" Bonnie asked, settling into her seat.

Woohyun walked over to the fridge and opened up the door. "We’re having our first official date," he answered as he poked his head into the cold air, searching for food.

"Oh! This _is_ exciting!" Bonnie squealed, rubbing her hands together in delight.

Woohyun pulled his head out of the fridge and smiled at her the way he knew she liked. "I told you!"

Then he closed the door to reveal him carrying an armful of tupperware. He put some food on the countertop, and he grabbed the container filled with the soup and proceeded to heat it up. "Woah!" she said, her eyes wide, scanning all of the food laid out in front of her. "Are you trying to feed an army or do you normally eat this much?"

"No," he chuckled. He brought the soup back over in two bowls and sat down next to her. "I’m feeding you," he said, tapping her nose for emphasis.

Bonnie averted her gaze. "Woohyun-ssi…" her voice was shaking with apprehension.

Woohyun grabbed her wrists again and rubbed loving circles into her skin. She turned back to him "I want to make you healthy again," he murmured.

"I-I don’t know," she stuttered with a shake of her head. "It’s going to be hard. My head…my body is really messed up. I don’t know if I can."

Woohyun smirked mischievously. "I think I can find a way to make you eat." Bonnie raised an eyebrow but he didn't explain any further. He was busy for looking for something in the spread in front of him. Then he found it, a large red strawberry. He cut off the end and placed it in his mouth, holding the edges of it with his teeth. He turned to Bonnie and gestured to her to take it from his mouth. 

She giggled and brought her mouth close to his, taking the strawberry with her tongue. Their lips brushed. She pulled away and chewed on the fruit. After swallowing, Bonnie conceded to his great idea. "Maybe this will be easier than I thought. But what about the soup?" she challenged.

"I’ll feed it to you mama bird to baby bird," he quickly answered. He then put a large spoonful of the hot soup into his mouth and cupped Bonnie's cheeks, bringing her closer to him.

"Ew stop!" she yelled and laughed at the same time, placing her hands on his chest and pushed him away.

"Wa? Why? Wa’s wong?" he asked, mouth still full of soup.

"I’ll eat! I’ll eat it myself," she promised, shoveling spoonful after spoonful into her mouth. She then turned to Woohyun who finally swallowed with a big gulp. "That’s just gross."

But Woohyun didn't mind her little dig. Watching her eat the most he's ever seen her eat, made his chest swell up in pride. He couldn't restrain himself anymore and pecked her on the cheek. "Aigoo! That’s my girl. I love you," he cooed pecking her again for good measure. Bonnie started choking. "What? What’s wrong?" he asked, gently patting her back.

After the coughing ceased, she looked at him with wide eyes. "It’s the first time you’ve ever said it to me, and it sounded so casual," she answered with a stunned voice.

Woohyun shook his head. "I’m pretty sure that I’ve said it before," he argued.

Bonnie shook her head even harder. "I’m _pretty_ sure that I would remember if you did," she retorted.

"Okay.Then how would you want me to say it?" he joked. "Like this?" he grabbed her hands. "Honey, I love you," he said dramatically. Bonnie giggled. "Or," he suggested getting down on knee. "I love you!" he sang loudly, holding the note for as long as he could. Bonnie rolled her eyes. Then Woohyun jumped up and bounced around, putting  bunny ears on his head. "Noona, I love you!" he said in a baby voice.

"All of them," Bonnie answered clapping her hands.

"All?" he asked in disbelief, sitting down.

"Mhmm." she nodded. "Everyday."

Woohyun snorted and pinched her cheek. "I remember that there was a time that you’d cringe when I said stuff like that. But now you can’t get enough of my greasiness."

Bonnie winced, remembering how closed off she was, how rude she was to him. But there was no reason for her to hide anymore. "You probably enjoy giving it as much as I enjoy receiving it," she teased, poking him back in the cheek.

"True," he admitted. "We’re quite the pair."

"It's about f***ing time!" Sungyeol yelled busting through the swinging door. "He was kissing a f***ing stuffed animal when you were gone. We thought he went crazy!"

Myungsoo followed close behind him. "Does this mean you're my sister now?" he asked Bonnie.

But before she could answer, Sungjong brushed past him. "More like cousin-in-law," he interjected.

"MOMO!" Dongwoo yelled, suddenly running to the spot where the grungy bunny laid lifelessly on the floor. He looked up to Woohyun with tears in his eyes. "After everything she's done for you in the past couple of days, you just throw her aside like this. You monster!"

Myungsoo ran over to join his brother and gingerly took Momo into his own hand. "Don't cry, Momo. Oppa will take care of you."

Sungyeol rolled his eyes. "And they called me childish."

Bonnie peered, trying to catch a glimpse of the dirty bunny that Myungsoo was now protectively nuzzling into his chest and Dongwoo was patting its long ears. "Woohyun-ssi, who's Momo?" she asked with an amused smile.

"His one true love," Sungjong answered with a dead-panned expression.

"Yah! Don't you guys have jobs to do!" Woohyun yelled at all of the flower boys.

* * *

One year later, much had changed with the bakery. Bonnie, with Sungkyu's blessing, became a freelance writer, occasionally writing reviews, but she did have a weekly column entitled "My Life with the Flower Boys" about her daily life at the bakery. It was widely popular, mostly because it often included photos of the boys. And with Bonnie's refined palate and Woohyun's inventiveness, the bakery became known not only for its handsome servers, but for its unique (and delightful) flavors and textures of their food. Their 'fanbase' automatically expanded, and they were soon getting patrons of all types. And thusly the 'special service' slowly diminished, and they began to treat the customers normally (with the occasional heart throw here and there).

The final blow to the 'special service' was the fact that a few months after Bonnie joined the bakery full time, Sungyeol was discovered and was offered a role on a daily drama (a small one but Sungyeol kept arguing that there was 'no small roles, only small actors.' And he was in fact tall, so it was null and void). And like Woohyun had always expected, his friend preformed phenomenally, and the offers began to quickly roll in for Sungyeol. Which meant, he had to leave the bakery. It was a sad but happy day for everybody.

Howon also started to help out at the bakery and befriended the entire staff. He was said to not receive a prince nickname but was called 'Hoaegi' instead. Which much to his chagrin, his wife started to call him, albeit lovingly.

Bonnie, with a lot of help and love from Woohyun, was able to adopt proper eating habits and returned to a healthy weight (some doctors would call her slightly overweight, but to Woohyun she was perfect). Also with much encouragement, Woohyun did venture into making gluten-free desserts, eventually finding it a more satisfying challenging than trying to create new flavors.

But perhaps the biggest change for the bakery came almost exactly a year later when Bonnie and Woohyun got married. The ceremony was small, involving only their close friends and family, but it was the ceremony that the both of them had always dreamed of (well, that _all_ of them ever dreamed of. The flower boys were very involved in the wedding planning).

But for Bonnie, the best part was the four-tiered cake that Woohyun had baked. It was covered entirely in hearts, and he claimed that each heart represented something that he loved about her (and when she challenged him to prove it, he almost did, but she stopped him at the 32nd heart because she was blushing too much). However, the best part about the cake wasn't how it looked or how it tasted, but it was the fact that it was gluten-free and low in sugar, that Woohyun could enjoy it with her. And a dessert is always sweeter when you share it with the one you love.


End file.
